.; 


University  of  California. 


GIFT   OF 


<V  o? 

»T  \*f  T   vV 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESSES 


ON   THE 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER 


OF 


GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON, 

(A  SENATOR  FEOM  ALABAMA), 

DELIVERED  IN  THE 

SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

IXTEC  CONGHRESS,  SECOND  SKSSIOJST, 
FEBRUARY  26  AND  MARCH  3,  1880, 


TKE   PROCEEDINGS   CONNECTED   WITH  THE   FUNERAL 
OF   THE   DECEASED. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING    OFFICE. 

1880. 


JOINT  RESOLUTION  to  print  the  eulogies  delivered  in  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  upon  the  late  George  S.  Houston,  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Alabama. 

Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Bepresentatives  of  the  United  States  of 
America  in  Congress  assembled,  That  twelve  thousand  copies  of  the  proceed 
ings  connected  with  the  funeral  of  and  the  eulogies  delivered  in  the  Senate 
and  House  of  Representatives,  upon  the  late  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  beprinted, 
eight  thousand  for  the  use  of  the  House  of  Representatives  and  four  thou 
sand  for  the  use  of  the  Senate,  and  that  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars  is 
hereby  appropriated  out  of  any  money  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appro 
priated,  to  pay  for  the  expense  of  procuring  a  portrait  of  the  late  Mr.  HOUS 
TON,  under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 

Approved,  April  29,  1880. 


^^.-£? 
^    OP   TUB 

[UNIVERSITY 
•POJ$V 

ANNtrTOOEMI 


DEATH  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON, 


A   SENATOR   FROM   ALABAMA. 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

TUESDAY,  JANUARY  6,  1880. 


The  Chaplain,  Eev.  J.  J.  BULLOCK,  D.  D.,  offered  the  following 

PRAYER : 

Almighty  and  ever-living  God,  we  bless  and  adore  Thee  as 
our  creator,  our  preserver,  and  our  most  bountiful  benefactor. 
We  rejoice  that  Thou  art  on  the  throne,  and  that  Thy  king 
dom  ruleth  over  all.  We  thank  Thee,  O  God,  for  Thy  manifold 
blessings  to  us.  Especially  do  we  thank  Thee  for  Thy  watchful 
providence  over  us  since  last  we  met  together  in  this  Chamber, 
and  that  we  are  permitted  to  enter  upon  the  duties  and  re 
sponsibilities  of  a  new  year  under  circumstances  of  great  mercy. 

O  God,  it  hath  seemed  good  unto  Thee,  in  Thine  inscrutable 
providence,  to  remove  by  the  hand  of  death  another  member 
of  this  venerable  body  from  the  scene  of  his  honors,  his  labors, 
and  his  responsibilities  into  the  future  and  eternal  world.  We 
pray  that  our  hearts  may  be  deeply  touched  by  this  sad  dis 
pensation  of  Thy  Providence,  and  that  we  may  be  reminded 
of  our  own  mortality  and  of  the  necessity  of  being  ever  pre- 


ANNOUNCEMENT    OF   THE 


pared  for  our  departure,  for  we  know  not  when  we  shall  be 
called  hence.  We  invoke  Thy  especial  blessing  to  rest  upon 
the  bereaved  family  of  the  deceased  Senator.  Comfort  them 
in  the  hour  of  their  affliction ;  bind  up  the  broken-hearted ;  and 
may  this  affliction  be  sanctified  to  them. 

We  invoke  Thy  blessing  to  rest  upon  our  rulers,  upon  the 
President,  the  Vice-Presideut,  the  Senators  and  Eepresenta- 
tives  in  Congress,  and  upon  all  others  in  authority.  May  they 
rule  in  the  fear  of  God  and  for  the  good  of  our  common  coun 
try.  Watch  over  us  during  all  our  appointed  time  upon  earth, 
choose  all  our  changes  for  us,  be  with  us  in  the  last  sad  change 
that  awaits  us  upon  earth,  and  finally  receive  us  into  Thy 
kingdom  above,  we  ask  for  Christ  our  Eedeemer's  sake.  Amen. 


Mr.  MOBGAK  Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  I  rise  for  the  purpose  of 
making  known  to  the  Senate  the  death  of  my  colleague,  Hon. 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  of  Alabama,  who  died  on  the  last  day  of 
the  last  year  at  his  home  in  Athens,  Alabama,  in  the  midst  of 
his  family  and  his  friends,  honored  and  regretted  by  all  the  peo 
ple  of  that  State.  At  some  other  time  I  shall  ask  the  Senate  to 
consider  some  resolutions  commemorative  of  the  virtues  of  my 
late  colleague. 

At  this  moment  of  time  it  seems  to  be  required  of  me,  as  a 
painful  duty,  that  I  should  make  some  contradiction  of  a  state 
ment  which  was  made  public  on  the  day  of  his  burial,  to  the 
effect  that  he  and  I  were  not  on  speaking  terms — a  gentleman 
for  whom  I  had  the  highest  personal  regard,  and  in  whose  po 
litical  opinions  and  mine  there  was  perfect  accord  upon  all  sub 
jects,  so  far  as  I  am  aware.  I  had  received,  as  I  was  informed 
by  his  family,  his  most  tender  and  kindly  expressions  of  regard, 
even  up  to  almost  the  very  hour  of  his  death.  He  was  a  noble, 


DEATH   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON. 


good  man,  in  whose  friendship  I  did  sincerely  rejoice  and  whose 
respect  was  to  me  one  of  the  greatest  boons  of  my  personal  as 
well  as  my  political  life. 

Having  said  this  much  on  that  part  of  the  subject,  I  will 
now,  Mr.  President,  move  that  the  Senate  adjourn. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT.  Before  the  Chair  puts  the  ques 
tion,  he  desires  to  State  that  in  the  recess  of  the  Senate,  assum 
ing  that  his  action  would  meet  the  approbation  of  the  Senate, 
he  appointed  Mr.  MORGAN,  Mr.  EATON,  Mr.  ALLISON,  Mr. 
BLAIR,  and  Mr.  COKE  as  a  committee  on  the  part  of  the  Senate 
to  attend  the  funeral  of  the  late  Senator  HOUSTON  in  Alabama, 
and  if  his  action  meets  the  approbation  of  the  Senate  it  will  be 
noted  upon  the  Journal.  The  Chair  hears  no  objection.  The 
question  is,  Will  the  Senate  now  adjourn? 

The  motion  was  agreed  to ;  and  (at  twelve  o'clock  and  thirty- 
two  minutes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


ADDRESSES 


DEATH  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON, 


A  SENATOR  FROM  ALABAMA. 


DELIVERED   IN   THE   SENATE. 

THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  26,  1880. 


Mr.  MOKGAN.  According  to  notice  heretofore  given,  Mr. 
President,  I  now  ask  the  Senate  to  dispense  with  the  regular 
order  and  to  devote  a  part  of  this  day's  session  to  the  consider 
ation  of  resolutions  commemorative  of  our  late  associate  in  this 
body,  GEORGE  SMITH  HOUSTON,  a  Senator  from  Alabama, 
who  died  on  the  31st  day  of  December,  1879.  I  ask  for  the 
reading  of  the  resolutions  which  I  send  to  the  desk. 

The  VICE-PBESIDENT.    The  resolutions  will  be  read. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Eesolved,  That  the  Senate  has  heard  with  regret  of  the  death  of  Hon. 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  extends  to 
the  family  of  the  deceased  Senator  and  to  the  people  of  Alabama  sincere 
condolence  in  their  bereavement. 

Eesolved,  That  the  long  public  service  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  has  been 
marked  by  fidelity  to  his  convictions  of  duty,  by  industry  and  patience  in 
his  labors  for  the  public  welfare,  by  distinguished  ability  in  the  legislative 
councils  of  the  United  States,  and  by  devoted  and  wise  service  to  Alabama 
as  governor  of  that  State. 

Eesolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  transmit  to  the  family  of  the 
deceased  and  to  the  governor  of  Alabama  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  with 
the  action  of  the  Senate  thereon. 


ADDRESS   OF   MR.   MORGAN   ON   THE 


Address  of  Mr.  MORGAN,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  it  is  the  custom  of  the  houses  of  Congress 
to  bring  back  the  memory  of  those  who  die  while  they  are  in 
this  branch  of  the  public  service  by  resolutions  and  remarks 
that  reflect  the  opinions  of  the  survivors  as  to  their  personal 
and  official  character,  and  to  bestow  a  last  mark  of  respect 
upon  the  deceased. 

For  other  reasons,  also,  it  is  well  that  we  sometimes  pause  to 
consider  what  we  are  and  whither  we  are  traveling.  It  is  not 
dangerous  to  the  country,  nor  is  it  a  needless  consumption  of 
time,  that  those  who  are  intrusted  with  the  great  powers  of  gov 
ernment  are  sometimes  compelled,  through  the  invasion  of  these 
legislative  chambers  by  the  inevitable  hand  of  death,  to  cease 
their  labors  and  controversies  for  a  time,  and  to  consider  how 
brief  a  period  is  allotted  to  their  usefulness ;  to  consider  how 
it  is  that  only  for  a  moment  they  can  be  permitted  to  enjoy  the 
fruits  and  honors  of  their  exertions,  and  how  the  strongest  men 
stagger  under  their  burdens  as  they  grow  with  advancing  years 
and  become  heavier  toward  the  close  of  even  a  long  lifetime. 
It  is  upon  occasions  like  this  when  a  man  of  seventy  years  has 
died,  all  of  whose  manhood  was  devoted  to  honorable  public 
service  in  high  stations,  that  we  appreciate  the  fact  that  those 
labors  are  of  little  advantage  to  the  toilers  compared  with  that 
which  inures  to  posterity.  It  is  on  these  occasions  that  we 
realize  that  our  public  acts  as  law-makers  will  be  impartially 
scrutinized  after  we  are  dead,  and  after  our  personal  influence 
in  their  vindication  has  ceased ;  and  that  nothing  in  them  can 
bring  honor  to  our  memories  unless  it  is  just  and  patriotic. 

GEORGE  SMITH  HOUSTON  was  born  in  Williamson  County, 
Tennessee,  of  an  honorable  parentage  j  not  wealthy  or  distin 
guished,  but  highly  respected  for  the  sort  of  integrity  and 

* 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.     9 

strength  and  purity  of  character  and  modesty  in  asserting  their 
claims  to  high  distinctions  that  constituted  marked  virtues 
among  the  agricultural  classes  in  the  earlier  years  of  this 
country. 

Many  great  and  good  men,  who  have  sprung  from  that  class 
of  society,  have  attained  to  the  highest  honors  within  the  gift 
of  the  American  people.  That  influence  which  was  exerted 
over  these  great  men  in  their  childhood  has  constantly  widened 
and  deepened  with  the  current  of  their  lives,  and,  in  its  matu 
rity,  has  afforded  to  States  and  to  the  Union  and  the  people  the 
safest  and  most  virtuous  element  in  American  statesmanship. 
Senator  HOUSTON  had  attained  the  age  of  seventy  years,  when 
his  course  was  ended  on  the  last  day  of  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1879. 

The  year  closed  sadly  to  the  people  of  Alabama  when  with  it 
a  life  was  closed  that  had  been  dutifully  spent  in  their  service — 
a  life  that  they  had  so  recently  crowned  with  the  highest  honors 
they  could  bestow  upon  him — and  when  it  ended  a  companion 
ship  that  was  full  of  comfort  and  benefit  to  them. 

With  the  closing  year  he  went  quietly  away ;  and,  like  the 
passing  of  the  old  year  into  the  new,  without  any  interval  of 
time,  his  life,  that  ended  here,  was  at  once  renewed  in  another 
sphere.  He  passed  straightway  "  from  death  unto  life."  The 
evening  and  the  morning  came  together  without  an  intervening 
night,  and  in  their  union  he  found  himself  ushered  into  the 
morning  of  eternity,  as  we  believe,  "a  just  man  made  perfect." 

He  came  to  Alabama  when  he  was  a  child,  and  that  beautiful 
land  was  home  to  him  during  all  his  remaining  days.  He  re 
ceived  an  elementary  education  at  an  academy  in  Lauderdale 
County,  and  entered  a  law  office  as  a  student.  His  elementary 
law  course  was  completed  at  Harrodsburgh,  Kentucky,  and  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1831.  In  1832  he  was  elected  to 


2  H 


10  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN  ON  THE 

represent  Lauderdale  County  in  the  General  Assembly  of 
Alabama.  He  was  laborious  and  persistent  in  his  legal  studies, 
and  diligent  and  faithful  in  his  professional  engagements,  so 
that  he  was  soon  appointed,  and  afterward  elected,  to  the  re 
sponsible  office  of  circuit  solicitor. 

From  that  position  he  was  elected  to  Congress  in  1841.  He 
thus  became  generally  known  to  the  people  of  the  State,  that 
election  under  the  general-ticket  system  having  been  deter 
mined  by  the  voters  of  the  entire  State.  Afterward  he  was 
elected  to  represent  a  district  in  the  House  of  ^Representatives 
in  1843  and  in  1845  and  in  1847.  In  1849  he  declined  election 
and  resumed  the  practice  of  law.  In  1851  he  was  again  elected 
to  Congress  and  continued  to  hold  his  seat  by  re-election,  and 
for  four  terms  without  opposition.  In  January,  1861,  he  retired 
with  his  colleagues  from  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  in 
obedience  to  the  will  of  the  people  of  Alabama,  as  expressed  in 
their  ordinance  of  secession  from  the  American  Union. 

The  severance  of  his  relations  with  the  American  Congress 
was  to  him  a  most  painful  duty.  He  had  done  all  in  his  power 
to  avert  the  causes  that  made  this  step  one  of  imperative  duty 
on  his  part,  but  he  bowed  with  reverence  to  what  he  believed 
was  the  sovereign  will  of  the  people  of  Alabama,  and  united 
his  fortunes  with  them  "  for  better  or  for  worse." 

In  his  own  opinion,  freely  expressed,  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  of  the  States  was  justly  to  be  preferred  to  any  hope  of 
escape  by  its  destruction  from  the  sacrifices  which  he  could 
then  foresee  as  the  result  of  its  perpetuity.  He  was  then  a 
large  slaveholder,  but  he  did  not  permit  his  conduct  to  be  in 
fluenced  by  what  was  the  almost  universal  belief  that  a  con 
tinuance  of  the  Union  would  soon  result  in  the  destruction  of 
the  entire  value  of  that  description  of  property.  His  opinions 
as  to  wise  policy  were  not  as  strong  as  his  affections  toward  his 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEOEG-E   S.   HOUSTON.  11 

people,  and  he  yielded  his  judgment  to  his  sense  of  duty  to  his 
State. 

During  the  period  of  the  war  he  devoted  much  of  his  time 
and  means  to  the  alleviation  of  its  hardships  upon  the  sufferers 
in  the  armies  and  at  home.  His  sons  entered  the  Confederate 
army  and  bore  themselves  with  gallantry  in  many  of  its  fierce 
conflicts. 

In  1865  he  was  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  by 
the  legislature  of  Alabama,  but  he  was  not  admitted  to  his 
seat  because  his  was  a  State  of  the  American  Union  that  was 
denied  representation  in  the  American  Senate. 

Again  resuming  the  practice  of  law  he  worked  earnestly  to 
restore  his  impaired  fortunes,  and  was  active  in  the  assistance 
of  the  people  in  the  re-establishment  of  law  and  order  and  the 
building  up  of  their  devastated  country.  His  counsels  were 
wise  and  prudent,  and  his  example  of  patient  assiduity  was 
greatly  encouraging  to  those  who  desired  to  bring  social  order 
out  of  confusion  and  strife.  In  this  he  had  the  moral  support 
of  the  masses  of  the  people  who  stood  faithfully  by  him  and 
never  doubted  his  fidelity. 

I  need  not  recite  the  history  of  that  period  to  recall  the 
events  that  rendered  such  services  so  invaluable  to  the  people 
of  Alabama.  They  are  known  and  read  of  all  men.  I  could 
not  now  recite  them  without  incurring  the  suspicion  that  I  am 
willing  to  suggest  topics  that  are  still  matters  of  political  de 
bate,  involving  crimination  and  recrimination,  at  a  time  when 
the  proprieties  of  the  occasion  would  preclude  a  reply.  I  would 
do  a  wrong  to  the  well-known  sentiments  of  Senator  HOUSTON 
by  following  such  a  course.  One  of  his  highest  qualities  was  a 
manly  and  generous  indulgence  to  those  who  honestly  differed 
with  him  in  opinion. 

I  would  fail,  however,  to  render  a  just  tribute  to  the  dead, 


12 


ADDRESS   OF  MR.  MORGAN   ON  THE 


and  would  ignore  the  control  which  principle  had  over  his  con 
duct,  if  I  did  not  say  that  his  guiding  light  in  the  dark  period 
of  our  worst  distractions  and  sufferings  in  Alabama,  which  he 
followed  with  implicit  faith,  and  asked  the  people  to  trust  with 
confidence,  was  the  same  that  had  shone  upon  his  pathway 
during  the  whole  of  his  long  public  life. 

He  believed  in  the  honesty  of  the  people,  and  felt  always  con 
fident  of  their  power  to  relieve  the  country  of  the  gravest  evils 
by  a  faithful  observance  of  the  principles  of  constitutional  gov 
ernment  that  have  so  long  distinguished  the  democratic  party. 
And  when  the  people  of  Alabama  again  called  him  into  their 
service  in  1874  as  the  governor  of  the  State,  he  came  as  a  Dem 
ocrat.  Eegulating  his  administration  by  a  rigid  observance  of 
those  principles  of  government  that  he  had  so  long  cherished, 
he,  and  those  who  were  his  supporters,  have  speedily  restored 
the  State  of  Alabama  to  a  condition  that  is  hailed  with  grati 
tude  by  the  people  of  the  State,  of  every  class,  and  that  should 
excite  emotions  of  pride  in  the  breast  of  every  American. 

At  the  expiration  of  his  first  term  as  governor,  the  people 
were  ready  to  honor  him  still  further  by  electing  him  a  second 
time  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  but  they  had  again 
chosen  him  governor  of  the  State,  and  they  would  not  consent 
to  relieve  him  of  that  service  until  he  had  completed  fully  the 
wise  course  of  policy  inaugurated  during  his  first  term.  The 
people  joyfully  realized  the  fact  that  their  future  prosperity 
had  been  established  on  an  enduring  foundation,  and  that  they 
were  much  indebted  to  the  wisdom  and  fidelity  of  Governor 
HOUSTON  for  their  deliverance  from  the  worst  evils.  And 
when  this  good  and  great  work  had  been  completed  they  sent 
him  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  where  they  fondly 
hoped  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  his  great  abilities  for  yet 
many  years.  But  death,  not  entirely  unexpected  to  any  man 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.    13 

of  his  age,  but  not  less  grievous  on  that  account,  has  cut 
him  off. 

The  bitterness  of  this  disappointment  is  severely  felt  by  all 
classes  of  the  people  of  Alabama.  He  was  known  in  almost 
every  household  of  the  State,  and  his  loss  is  lamented  at  every 
fireside  almost,  from  the  stately  mansions  of  the  rich  down  to 
the  humblest  cabins  of  the  poor. 

This  imperfect  recital  of  the  more  prominent  facts  that  make 
up  the  history  of  a  life  of  three-score  and  ten  years,  is  enough 
to  show  that  it  was  full  of  honorable  usefulness.  None  of  the 
sixty  years,  from  his  childhood  to  the  end  of  his  life,  was  spent 
in  frivolity  or  dissipation.  His  time  was  all  occupied  with  use 
ful  preparation  and  earnest  work.  His  was  a  life  of  purpose, 
whose  aim  was  the  performance  of  duty,  and  whose  coveted 
reward  was  honorable  success.  This  he  achieved,  and  his  suc 
cess  was  sweetened  by  the  answer  of  a  good  conscience  and 
made  joyful  by  the  approbation  of  his  countrymen. 

His  mental  endowments  were  of  a  high  order.  In  its  ac 
tion  his  mind  was  vigorous  and  powerful  rather  than  beautiful 
and  splendid.  He  was  not  a  genius,  if  there  are  such  people. 
He  was  sufficiently  inventive  always  to  find  or  to  discern  the 
safest  methods  of  avoiding  evils,  and  the  quickest  and  least 
expensive  means  of  escape  from  them.  His  mind  was  active, 
vigilant,  and  intense,  and  was  so  balanced  in  judgment,  and  so 
guarded  against  the  influence  of  passionate  impulses  that  he 
almost  infallibly  came  to  correct  conclusions.  He  could  safely 
trust  his  own  convictions  and  he  did  trust  them,  when  others 
who  reasoned  elaborately  were  still  left  in  doubt.  This  faculty 
was  far  less  the  result  of  close  mental  discipline  than  of  that 
excellent  organism  and  balance  of  mind  whose  results  are  so 
well  known  and  so  greatly  prized  under  the  homely  classifica 
tion  of  "  good  common  sense." 


14 


ADDRESS   OF  MB.   MORGAN   ON   THE 


It  was  this  easy  and  regular  and  correct  method  of  his  mental 
powers  in  dealing  with  the  problems  that  were  always  requiring 
solution  that  enabled,  him  to  devote  so  large  a  part  of  his  time 
to  executive  labors  rather  than  to  the  study  of  the  opinions  of 
other  men.  He  was  rich  in  the  wisdom  that  was  born  of  his 
own  thoughts,  reflections,  and  experiences,  and  was  not  ambi 
tious  merely  to  be  considered  learned  in  the  erudition  which  is 
treasured  in  books.  His  moral  sense  was  acute  and  strong.  It 
was  the  ruling  power  in  his  whole  life.  In  every  relation  to 
society  and  in  every  act  of  his  public  or  private  life  he  was 
guided,  controlled,  and  impelled  by  an  unswerving  fidelity  to 
his  moral  convictions. 

It  is  not  enough  to  say  of  him  that  he  was  honest,  for  in  his 
judgment  of  men  he  rated  honesty  as  an  indispensable  element 
in  every  descent  character.  He  ascended  to  that  higher  plane 
of  character  which  all  men  love  to  affect  but  all  cannot  right 
fully  claim.  He  was  a  just  man.  He  also  recognized  with 
pleasure  other  adornments  of  the  character  of  a  just  man, 
such  as  ardent  and  honorable  friendship,  benevolence,  philan 
thropy,  and  a  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  for  the  good  of  others,  in 
reference  to  the  possession  of  which  he  had  a  good  reputation. 
But  he  could  not  tolerate  a  friendship  that  was  tainted  with  dis 
honor;  he  would  never  have  gratified  a  feeling  of  benevolence 
by  taking  another  man's  money  to  bestow  it  in  charities  upon 
his  friends,  however  worthy  they  might  be.  He  despised  the 
sort  of  sentimentalism  that  is  ready  to  decorate  itself  with  the 
insignia  of  broken  covenants  and  of  rights  destroyed  in  order 
to  illustrate  its  zeal  for  religion,  or  the  rights  of  man,  or  any 
cause  however  good  in  itself.  He  abhorred  the  hypocrisy 
which  drapes  itself  in  the  garments  of  a  pretentious  philan-' 
thropy,  and  while  they  drip  with  the  blood  of  innocent  people, 
shed  in  wars  really  waged  for  power  or  spoils,  proclaims  with 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  15 

insolent  cant  the  grand  benison,  "  On  earth,  peace,  and  good 
will  toward  men."  He  would  make  no  sacrifices  in  a  cause  that 
he  did  not  believe  just,  but  would  spend  and  be  spent  in  a 
cause  be  believed  was  worthy  of  his  devotion.  He  was  not 
"  generous  to  a  fault,"  as  the  apothegm  is  phrased ;  he  was  first 
just  and  then  generous,  according  to  his  reasonable  ability. 
He  did  not  give  alms  to  be  seen  of  men,  but  he  gave  them. 
He  did  not  pray  at  the  street  corners,  but  he  prayed  fervently. 
It  is  not  appropriate  perhaps  to  enter  in  the  sacred  circle  of 
his  home,  and  gather  there  the  evidences  of  the  honest  nobility 
of  his  nature,  from  the  incidents  of  his  interior  life ;  but  I  may 
say  with  propriety,  as  I  do  with  confidence,  that  there  went 
forth  from  his  home-life  a  current  of  principle  which  was  pure 
in  its  fountain,  and  infused  into  his  public  life  a  tone  and  char 
acter  that  inspired  his  countrymen  with  absolute  confidence  in 
his  integrity  as  a  statesman  and  public  servant.  I  own  to  a  con 
ception  of  the  character  of  a  true  American  statesman  that  is 
nearly  summed  up  in  the  public  life  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON. 
I  do  not  mean  to  say  of  him  that  he  would  have  been  a  great 
leader  in  times  of  turbulence  or  war,  or  that  he  excelled  in  the 
powers  of  debate  in  the  halls  of  legislation ;  but  he  had  great 
sagacity  and  forecast  in  the  avoidance  of  calamitous  evils.  And 
a  firm  conviction  as  to  the  power  of  the  people  to  sustain  their 
government  when  the  Constitution  is  permitted  to  have  its  just 
influence ;  and  in  their  determination,  sooner  or  later,  to  assert 
its  supremacy  in  government,  was  the  sheet-anchor  of  his  po 
litical  faith.  He  believed  in  the  capacity  of  the  people  to 
achieve  every  possible  success  in  their  aggregate,  and  in  their 
individual  efforts  to  become  prosperous  and  happy,  if  they  are 
left  as  far  as  practicable  to  their  right  of  local  self-government. 
He  believed  in  a  government  that  governs  as  little  as  is  con 
sistent  with  the  general  welfare,  and  that  is  sensitive  to  the 


16  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN  ON  THE 

least  infraction  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  citizen.  He 
believed  in  the  responsibility  of  the  legislative  and  executive 
departments  to  the  people  for  all  their  public  acts,  and  of  the 
judges  for  the  purity  of  their  judgments.  These  convictions, 
supported  by  an  honest  reverence  for  the  Constitution,  and 
controlled  by  a  spirit  of  self-denying  restraint  on  the  part  of 
the  legislator  in  reference  to  the  assumption  of  doubtful  pow 
ers,  comprise  a  safe  creed  of  American  statesmanship.  Senator 
HOUSTON  regulated  his  entire  political  course  in  conformity  to 
these  principles  and  rules  of  conduct.  He  was  among  the 
foremost  and  most  consistent  of  that  class  of  statesmen  of  his 
time  who  kept  a  constant  watch  upon  their  own  conduct  and 
carefully  confined  the  measures  they  advocated  within  the 
boundaries  of  a  strict  construction  of  the  powers  of  Congress. 
As  chairman  of  the  House  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means, 
in  which  distinguished  place  he  served  during  several  Con 
gresses,  he  always  carefully  guarded  the  people  against  the 
imposition  of  unjust  and  unnecessary  burdens  of  taxation  and 
kept  a  close  and  vigilant  watch  over  public  expenditures. 
This  is  not  always  a  pleasing  task  when  the  hungry  expectants 
of  public  bounty  are  sneering  in  the  lobbies  and  through  the 
press  at  the  parsimony  of  Congress,  or  when  a  majority  is 
created  by  questionable  combinations  to  force  the  passage  of 
measures  that  require  extraordinary  expenditures  of  the  public 
money.  No  man  was  ever  more  faithful  and  few  could  have 
been  more  courageous  or  useful  than  my  late  colleague  in 
withstanding  all  opposition  while  he  defended  the  rights  of  the 
people  against  licentious  measures.  As  chairman  of  the  House 
Committee  on  the  Judiciary  he  evinced  a  high  order  of  capacity 
for  solving  the  many  delicate  and  involved  questions  that  are 
always  requiring  patient  and  careful  study  and  exhaustive 
research  by  that  committee. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON. 


17 


In  his  course  in  Congress,  he  was  earnestly  supported  by  his 
constituency.  This  support  was  the  cheerful  tribute  of  the 
people  to  an  honest  representative  and  to  a  faithful,  dutiful, 
and  able  statesman. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  oue  part  of  his  congressional  course 
was  more  distinguished  than  another,  or  that  he  on  occasions 
flamed  up  with  extraordinary  exhibitions  of  power  in  debate. 

It  is  not  needful  to  the  real  merit  of  his  reputation  as  a 
statesman  that  this  should  be  said.  His  history  is  a  constant 
exhibition  of  great  powers  honestly  exerted  and  of  the  highest 
duties  carefully  and  faithfully  performed. 

The  sturdy  forest  oak  is  not  more  majestic  when  its  arms  are 
tossed  wildly  about  in  its  battliugs  with  the  storms  than  it  is 
when  the  gentlest  breezes  play  through  its  leafy  arbors,  as  it 
shelters  the  earth  from  the  rays  of  the  sun.  HOUSTON'S  life 
had  no  startling  episodes.  It  was  all  devoted  to  duty,  and  in 
its  steadfast  observance  he  was  able  to  render  a  better  service 
to  his  country  than  many  have  done  who  have  employed  their 
great  abilities  in  fomenting  the  agitations  of  partisan  politics. 

I  must  not  do  the  people  of  Alabama  the  injustice  to  omit  an 
expression  of  their  especial  bereavement  in  the  loss  of  my  late 
colleague  as  a  Senator  on  this  floor,  and  also  of  their  peculiar 
gratitude  for  his  services  as  governor  of  that  State.  He  was 
here  for  so  short  a  period  that  he  had  only  begun  to  render  that 
service  from  which  Alabama  expected  so  much  of  honor  and 
advantage.  He  was  an  old  man  when  he  came  to  the  Senate, 
but  he  had  been  preserved  in  such  uncommon  mental  vigor 
that  the  people  laid  upon  him  with  confidence  a  task  that  would 
not  have  been  a  light  burden  in  the  meridian  of  his  life.  We 
all  remember  with  what  cheerfulness  he  entered  upon  his  duties 
here,  and  how  zealously  he  labored  to  perform  them. 

The  Senate  lost  an  able  counselor  and  a  faithful  laborer  from 


3  H 


]8  ADDRESS  OF  ME.  MORGAN  ON  THE 

its  body  and  the  country  lost  a  wise  legislator  and  a  devoted 
son  when  HOUSTON  died.  Alabama  lost  a  counselor  and  guide 
from  whose  service  the  people  had  derived  the  most  important 
benefits.  In  1874,  when  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  was  first  elected 
governor  of  Alabama,  the  people  of  that  State  were  in  sad  need 
of  his  services.  On  that  occasion  the  hour  and  the  man  met. 
A  State  with  near  a  million  inhabitants,  possessed  of  immense 
resources  of  wealth  only  in  the  infancy  of  development,  at  the 
moment  when  its  leading  industry  was  paralyzed  by  a  radical 
change  in  its  labor  system,  lost  the  control  of  rightful  and  intel 
ligent  government.  Those  who  were  strangers  to  the  people 
and  to  the  laws  governed  the  State. 

The  results  that  speedily  followed  were  an  increase  of  its 
bonded  debt  from  less  than  $6,000,000  to  more  than  thirty  mill 
ions  within  a  period  of  five  years,  and  the  depreciation  of  the 
taxable  value  of  property  of  fully  50  per  cent.,  not  estimating 
what  had  been  lost  in  slave  property.  It  was  impossible  that 
the  people  could  pay  interest  on  so  large  a  sum.  The  holders 
of  the  securities  were  hopeless  of  the  ability  of  the  State  to  meet 
any  of  its  engagements.  The  people  were  discouraged,  emigra 
tion  rapidly  swept  off  the  population,  and  all  industries  were  con 
ducted  with  reference  only  to  the  supply  of  immediate  necessities. 
But  I  will  not  enter  into  further  details.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that  no  Christian  country  had  ever  been  worse  governed,  and 
no  people  had  ever  more  entirely  lost  confidence  in  the  future 
of  a  State.  The  people  were  so  shut  out  from  the  hope  of  good 
government,  and  their  condition  was  so  obviously  bad,  that  while 
they  were  too  weak  to  change  their  rulers,  and  did  not  attempt 
to  resent  the  wrongs  under  which  they  suffered,  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  feeling  that  American  citizens  so  situated 
must  be  in  a  state  bordering  on  revolt,  anticipated  such  a  con 
dition  of  affairs  and  sent  its  armies  there  to  prevent  it. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  19 

In  this  way  organized  injustice  and  tyranny  were  supported 
by  organized  armies.  To  restore  a  State  so  distracted  by  ma 
lign  influences  to  order  and  tranquillity,  and  to  give  a  people  so 
cast  down  a  hope  of  return  to  a  better  condition,  was  the  great 
work  that  lay  before  Governor  HOUSTON.  It  required  a  states 
man  to  do  this  work,  and  a  true  and  courageous  patriot  to  under 
take  it.  HOUSTON  was  fully  competent  to  the  great  duty,  and 
nobly  did  he  perform  it.  His  election  as  governor  opened  the 
way  to  a  happy  deliverance  of  the  people.  He  was  surrounded 
by  the  ablest  legislators  in  the  State,  who  acted  in  harmony 
with  him  in  all  the  great  measures  that  looked  to  the  relief  of 
the  people.  He  was  supported  by  an  able,  honest,  and  enlight 
ened  judiciary,  and  the  people  gathered  about  him  and  gave 
him  their  confidence  without  reserve.  A  new  constitution  was 
ordained  by  the  people.  Its  provisions  will  be  referred  to  while 
republican  forms  of  government  survive  as  a  pure,  simple,  and 
most  excellent  body  of  organic  law.  The  public  debt  was  then 
arranged  to  the  satisfaction  of  our  creditors,  through  a  commis 
sion  of  which  Governor  HOUSTON  was  chairman  and  Tristram 
B.  Bethea  and  Levi  W.  Lawler  were  members.  The  people  of 
Alabama  gratefully  appreciate  their  useful  and  arduous  labors, 
which  have  removed  a  barrier  to  their  progress  that  threatened 
to  destroy  every  industry. 

Almost  with  the  day  of  HOUSTON'S  first  inauguration  as  gov 
ernor  the  glow  of  returning  prosperity  began  to  manifest  itself 
in  every  part  of  the  State.  Confidence  took  the  place  of  dis 
trust,  and  the  people,  with  a  new  hope  and  increased  energies, 
went  to  work  to  rebuild  a  ruined  State. 

Governor  HOUSTON  did  not  live  to  see  the  full  realization  of 
this  good  work  he  had  so  carefully  inaugurated.  Had  he  lived 
another  seventy  years  he  would  not  have  witnessed  its  full 
benefit  to  his  country.  Every  industry  in  Alabama  is  now  in 


20  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  MORGAN  ON  THE 

a  prosperous  condition,  and  her  credit  is  above  par  for  gold. 
Her  people  are  peaceful  and  happy  and  the  laws  are  obeyed 
with  cheerfulness  by  all  classes  of  society. 

The  methods  of  government  so  happily  exemplified  in  the  re 
newed  life  of  this  great  State,  and  so  successfully  employed  by 
Governor  HOUSTON,  were  the  result  of  the  faithful  application  of 
principles  which  for  more  than  twenty  years  were  his  guide  as 
a  Eepresentative  in  the  Federal  Congress.  It  was  the  earnest 
hope  of  his  declining  years  to  enjoy  the  realized  assurance  that 
the  people  will  never  lose  their  rights  or  liberties,  and  that 
the  country  will  never  again  be  agitated  with  sectional  strifes. 
He  was  full  of  confidence  that  if  they  will  hold  their  rulers  to 
accountability  for  their  public  acts  and  will  follow  such  leaders 
as  deny  to  themselves  the  right  to  usurp  powers  not  granted  to 
them,  and  who  are  not  ready  to  appropriate  to  themselves 
powers  that  are  doubtful,  the  people  will  remain  forever  free. 

I  claim  that  men  such  as  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  are  true 
American  statesmen.  The  people  estimate  their  value  as  being 
above  that  of  those  men  of  genius  whose  active  and  aggressive 
spirits  constantly  tempt  them  into  fields  of  experimental  adven 
ture  that  are  filled  with  dangers  to  their  liberties.  A  love  of 
glory,  a  selfish  love  of  power  for  the  advancement  of  personal 
aims,  is  not  compatible  with  a  just  and  safe  administration  of 
the  enormous  powers  that  are  intrusted  to  our  Federal  rulers. 
This  is  uniformly  the  judgment  of  the  people  when  it  is  not 
swayed  by  some  great  national  excitement. 

In  the  history  of  our  government,  when  the  people  have  had 
a  fair  opportunity  for  deliberate  reflection,  they  have  chosen 
their  Presidents  from  that  class  of  statesmen  who  obey  the 
popular  will  when  constitutionally  expressed,  who  revere  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  who  are  forbearing  in 
the  exercise  of  powers  not  clearly  conferred  upon  them.  Though 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  21 

GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  may  not  have  been  great  enough  to  rule 
a  free  people  at  the  expense  of  their  liberties,  he  was  great  in 
his  fortitude,  ability,  and  zeal  in  their  defense.  In  the  roll  of 
Senators  from  Alabama  who  preceded  him  to  the  tomb  there 
are  worthy  and  illustrious  names.  None  of  them  could  have 
been  great  as  the  enemies  of  constitutional  liberty,  but  they 
were  all  great  as  its  defenders. 

I  doubt  if  any  State  has  given  to  the  public  service  within  a 
like  period  twelve  statesmen  in  the  Senate  who  have  done  more 
to  advance  our  country  in  its  vigorous  growth,  or  who  have 
contributed  more  of  wisdom  toward  shaping  its  policy,  or  more 
of  fidelity  to  the  guardianship  of  the  constitutional  rights  of 
the  States  and  the  people. 

We  reverently  acknowledge  the  right  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUS 
TON,  which  is  claimed  for  his  memory  by  the  people  of  Alabama, 
to  have  his  name  inscribed  in  a  place  of  honor  on  the  roll  of  her 
most  distinguished  sons.  The  name  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON 
will  ever  be  most  worthily  associated  in  our  history  as  a  State, 
and  will  be  recalled  by  the  people  of  Alabama  with  emotions 
of  pride  and  gratitude,  along  with  the  names  of  William  R. 
King,  John  W.  Walker,  John  McKinley,  Israel  Pickens,  Ga 
briel  Moore,  Clement  C.  Clay,  Arthur  P.  Bagby,  Benjamin 
Fitzpatrick,  Dixon  H.  Lewis,  Jeremiah  Clemens,  and  George 
Goldthwaite,  who  were  his  predecessors  in  the  Senate. 

With  just  pride  I  place  his  example  before  young  men  of  the 
country,  and  with  confidence  I  ask  them  to  follow  it.  Nothing 
is  required  to  be  said  of  him  to  increase  the  love  of  the  people  of 
Alabama  toward  him,  or  to  make  his  memory  more  endeared  to 
them.  They  will  never  forget  that  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  and 
his  compatriots  saved  their  beautiful  State  from  degradation 
and  ruin.  His  life  was  simple,  earnest,  and  just;  his  devotion 
to  his  country  was  perfect;  he  left  no  duty  intentionally  neg- 


22  ADDRESS  OF  MR.   HAMLIN   ON   THE 

lected  or  carelessly  performed;  his  record  is  free  from  the 
tarnish  of  the  least  reproach ;  his  aspirations  were  for  the 
good  of  his  countrymen  ;  his  ambition  was  honorable,  his  suc 
cess  was  eminent,  and  his  fame  will  be  excellent  and  enduring. 


Address  of  Mr.  HAMLIN,  of  Maine. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  I  rise  to  second  the  resolutions  which  have 
been  introduced  by  the  Senator  from  Alabama,  and  thus  to  add 
my  approval  of  the  expression  which  they  contain  of  the  emi 
nent  life  and  services  of  the  late  Senator  to  which  they  refer. 
I  formed  that  opinion  by  an  acquaintance  running  through  more 
than  the  third  of  a  century,  and  an  acquaintance  which,  from 
the  peculiar  condition  of  things,  was  at  one  time  close  and  inti 
mate.  We  were  members  of  the  same  political  organization, 
and  there  was  that  condition  of  things  existing  in  that  organi 
zation  which  brought  us  in  closs  personal  intimacy. 

I  thus  knew  the  late  Senator  well;  and  in  all  that  long  ac 
quaintance  it  is  a  pleasure  to  remember  that  there  was  no  period 
of  time  when  that  intimacy  was  disturbed.  And  it  is  from  that 
long  acquaintance,  and  from  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  public 
life  and  services  of  the  man,  that  I  state  most  cheerfully  and 
cordially  that  there  is  not  one  word  in  the  resolutions  submitted 
by  the  Senator  from  Alabama  which  does  not  meet  the  approval 
of  my  judgment  and  my  heart. 

At  a  later  period  the  deceased  Senator  and  myself  disagreed 
in  political  matters.  We  were  as  wide  apart,  as  far  asunder  as 
possible;  but  of  that  disagreement  it  would  be  unbecoming  and 
would  be  in  want  of  all  good  taste  for  me  to  speak,  and  I  trust 
I  am  incapable  of  marring  the  propriety  of  this  occasion  by  at 
tempting  to  do  so.  But  in  manly  honestly  I  may  say  that  I  accord 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  23 

to  the  late  Senator,  as  I  do  to  all  others,  the  right  of  judgment, 
opinion,  and  action,  and  honesty  of  purpose,  to  the  precise  de 
gree  that  I  claim  it  for  myself.  We  disagreed,  but  in  that 
disagreement  there  was  no  disturbance  of  our  social  relations. 

What  the  Senator,  his  late  colleague,  has  said  in  relation  to 
the  general  character  of  the  man  has  been  most  truthfully  ex 
pressed,  and  has,  indeed,  deprived  me  of  the  few  words  that  I 
would  have  uttered,  as  they  would  be  little  else  than  repetition. 
But  one  point  in  the  life  and  character  of  our  departed  friend, 
upon  which  the  Senator  has  not  dwelt,  and  which  I  think  was 
a  leading  characteristic,  was  the  sincerity  of  his  purpose  and  of 
the  convictions  upon  which  he  acted.  It  was  that  which  made 
him  eminent ;  it  was  that  which  gave  him  success. 

As  the  world  defines  the  term,  he  was  not  an  orator  ;  but  he 
was  more ;  he  was  a  man  of  convictions,  and  upon  convictions 
produced  results.  The  man  who  stands  before  the  world  beam 
ing  all  over  with  the  honest  convictions  of  his  heart  is  more 
than  a  match  for  oratory  and  logic  combined ;  he  reaches  the 
heart,  and  the  heart  carries  the  head  captive.  Such  a  man  was 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON. 

He  won  his  victories  by  his  honesty  and  the  sincerity  of  his 
purposes,  and  he  made  men  come  to  him  because  they  believed 
him  honest ;  not  only  because  he  was  one  of  nature's  noblemen, 
but  because  they  felt  the  impress  of  that  sincerity  of  conviction 
in  his  heart  which  flowed  from  his  tongue. 

What  is  oratory  is  a  thing  which  it  would  be  very  hard  to 
define.  That  which  produces  results  is  of  vastly  more  impor 
tance  than  that  which  the  world  may  call  oratory,  and  GEORGE 
S.  HOUSTON,  by  his  industry  and  by  the  sterling  good  sense 
which  he  possessed,  has  left  the  impress  of  his  mind  upon 
the  statutes  of  the  country,  and  his  memory  will  live  in  its 
history. 


24  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   IIAMLIN   ON  THE 

We  to-day,  sir,  are  paying  a  tribute  to  the  memory  of  that 
man  which  is  only  commensurate  with  the  eminent  life  and  ser 
vices  which  he  devoted  to  the  country  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation.  True,  the  Senator  from  Alabama  has  told  us  that  State 
has  contributed  to  the  councils  of  the  nation  her  just  propor 
tion  of  eminent  and  distinguished  men.  She  has  contributed 
to  this  body  a  Bagby — and  I  am  speaking  now,  sir,  of  those 
only  with  whom  I  was  personally  acquainted — a  Bagby,  who 
stood  here  among  the  foremost  as  a  wise,  an  able,  and  a  safe 
counselor  in  the  administration  of  the  government  and  in  the 
framing  and  shaping  of  its  laws,  and  was  transferred  to  the 
diplomatic  service  of  the  government.  She  contributed  a  King, 
whose  presence  graced  this  body,  and  who,  by  his  experience 
and  his  ability,  aided  vastly  in  so  directing  the  affairs  of  the 
government  that  they  should  redound  to  the  glory  and  pro 
mote  the  best  interests  of  all.  He  remained  in  the  Senate 
until  he  became  its  father,  was  thence  promoted  to  the  chair, 
Mr.  President,  which  you  so  ably  fill,  and,  as  I  believe  I  may 
say,  so  acceptably  to  the  whole  body.  He  took  and  subscribed 
the  oath  of  office,  but  never  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  its 
duties,  having  been  called  from  earth  within  a  few  weeks  by  an 
inscrutable  Providence.  She  contributed  a  Lewis,  whose  wis 
dom  was  sought  as  an  oracle  by  those  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
own  State,  and  was  often  followed.  She  contributed,  not  to 
this  body  but  to  the  other,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  men  whom 
I  have  ever  met  (and  in  this  I  am  quite  sure  the  only  Senator 
in  this  body  who  with  me  will  personally  remember  him  will 
concur),  Yancey,  with  his  impassioned  eloquence,  who  chal 
lenged  and  commanded  the  attention  in  thoughts  that  breathed 
and  wdrds  that  burned,  if  he  did  not  convince  the  judgment. 

These  are  some  of  the  distinguished  men  of  Alabama  whom 
I  have  personally  known  ;  and  to  this  galaxy  of  stars  I  say  that 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON. 


25 


the  name  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  should  be  added — differing 
in  character,  but  in  no  sense  less  important.  The  State  of 
Alabama  should  cherish  his  memory  and  place  his  name  among 
the  foremost  men  of  the  State,  and  we  Senators  to-day  should 
imitate  his  example  of  sincerity  of  purpose,  of  honesty  of  con 
viction,  of  untiring  zeal,  and  an  industry  that  never  faltered 
in  seeing  that  all  the  affairs  of  the  government  were  rightfully 
and  economically  administered. 

Alabama  should  cherish  with  affection  and  remember  GEORGE 
S.  HOUSTON  so  long  as  she  shall  remember  any  of  her  distin 
guished  sons ;  and  while  we  may  imitate  all  that  was  good  and 
noble  and  generous  in  the  deceased  Senator,  if  he  like  all  of  us 
shall  have  committed  his  errors,  let  them  slumber  in  the  grave 
with  himself  and  be  forgotten,  and  let  us  apply  that  old  maxim, 
so  old  that  I  almost  dislike  to  quote  it,  had  it  not  been  sanc 
tioned  by  time  and  hallowed  by  the  best  of  men — De  mortuis 
nil  nisi  bonum. 


Address  of  Mr.  DAVIS,  of  Illinois. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  most  of  us,  when  we  cross  the  threshold 
of  this  Chamber  to  present  our  commissions,  have  passed  the 
meridian  line  of  life  and  reached  that  period  when  the  shadows 
of  declining  years  lengthen  fast.  We  are  few  in  number,  and 
the  contact  of  daily  association  draws  us  near  together ;  for, 
whatever  may  be  the  asperities  of  party  strife,  it  is  to  the  honor 
of  all  sides  that,  when  debate  stops,  personal  intercourse  is  not 
disturbed. 

}  Hence  it  is  that  a  vacant  chair  in  this  small  body,  draped  in 
mourning,  touches  us  all  as  a  family  bereavement.  We  look 
around  and  miss  the  familiar  face  and  the  friendly  voice,  and 
by  a  beautiful  instinct  of  man's  better  nature  we  recall  the  vir- 


26  ADDRESS  OF  MB.  DAVIS   ON  THE 

tues,  the  generous  qualities,  the  earnest  devotion,  and  the  fidel 
ity  to  duty,  of  the  Senator  who  has  gone,  as  all  must  hope,  to 
eternal  reward. 

It  was  not  my  privilege  to  know  personally  the  late  GEORGE 
S.  HOUSTON,  whose  loss  we  deplore  and  whose  memory  is  so 
justly  cherished,  until  we  met  here  less  than  a  year  ago.  The 
honorable  ambition  of  his  long  and  eminent  career  in  the  pub 
lic  service  had  been  to  close  it  in  this  Chamber  ?  He  was  per 
mitted  to  attain  the  object  of  his  pride,  and  to  wear  becomingly 
the  distinction  he  had  won  for  a  few  short  months,  and  then 
in  the  order  of  God's  wise  providence  he  was  summoned  away. 

Should  we  not  all,  and  especially  those  of  us  who  are  on  the 
descending  grade  of  life,  pause  to  consider  how  brief  at  best 
are  the  joys  of  ambition,  and  how  much  nobler  and  more  endur 
ing  are  the  prizes  in  other  spheres  of  human  action,  consecrated 
to  duty  as  we  are  instructed  to  follow  it?  Ambition  achieved, 
how  few  after  all  reach  up  to  the  public  expectation !  In  all 
history  before  and  since  the  Christian  era  how  many  names 
stand  out  as  distinctively  great  ?  Dull  chronology  records  our 
presence  here  and  elsewhere,  and  the  waves  of  oblivion  roll  over 
us,  as  they  have  rolled  over  untold  millions  in  past  generations. 

According  to  his  biographer,  Mr.  HOUSTON  had  nearly  at 
tained  to  the  age  allotted  by  the  Psalmist  as  man's  limit  of 
existence. 

He  entered  public  life  at  the  dawn  of  manhood,  and  he  only 
parted  from  it  when  he  bade  us  farewell  for  the  last  time.  As 
a  young  man  he  was  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  for 
eighteen  years  he  filled  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Eepresentatives 
with  recognized  credit,  attested  by  his  appointment  at  the 
head  of  the  foremost  committees.  Subsequently  other  honors 
were  tendered  to  him  by  the  people  whose  affection  and  whose 
confidence  he  enjoyed  without  interruption. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.          27 

His  last  service  before  coming  to  the  Senate  was  to  repair, 
as  governor  of  the  State,  the  ravages  which  civil  war  and  mis 
rule  had  inflicted.  In  his  sojourn  here  we  saw  him,  as  those 
who  knew  him  best  had  seen  him,  all  through  a  career  covering 
first  and  last  almost  half  a  century. 

He  was  proud  to  be  Senator,  but  the  distinction  never  lifted 
him  up  with  any  false  notion,  or  changed  in  the  least  degree 
that  simplicity  and  integrity  of  character  which  seemed  to  stand 
out  and  to  invite  trust  and  respect.  His  mind  was  not  of  a  bril 
liant  order,  nor  was  his  speech  eloquent,  in  the  sense  of  oratory. 
He  belonged  to  that  class  of  men  whose  practical  wisdom  and 
whose  solid  sense  govern  the  councils  of  nations,  and  who  rule 
cabinets  in  which  they  do  not  appear. 

Forty  years  ago,  when  the  professional  reformer  was  unknown 
in  politics,  and  when  the  abuses  that  give  him  an  excuse  to  live 
were  not  common,  Mr.  HOUSTON  was  a  sincere  and  an  earnest 
advocate  of  economy,  as  a  principle  to  be  rigidly  asserted  and 
enforced  in  the  administration  of  public  affairs.  He  sought  to 
maintain  a  pure  and  a  plain  government  after  the  manner  of 
the  fathers.  He  despised  shams,  and  he  opposed  official  pomp 
and  parade.  Devoted  to  this  idea,  he  was  consistent  in  his  sup 
port,  careful  to  be  right,  and  conscientiously  firm,  when  a  con 
clusion  was  reached.  His  public  character  might  perhaps  be 
best  described  as  that  of  an  upright,  sound,  and  faithful  legis 
lator,  whose  example  in  all  times  is  worthy  of  the  best  emula 
tion  and  whose  life  is  a  valuable  instruction. 

An  unspotted  private  fame  harmonized  with  these  qualities 
of  the  public  man,  so  that  as  citizen,  as  Representative,  and 
as  Senator,  he  was  tried  and  found  to  be  worthy. 

As  we  pass  from  these  scenes,  and  look  forward  to  the  not 
distant  day  when  the  sad  duty  which  is  now  discharged  for  our 
departed  brother  must  be  performed  for  others,  may  we  all  be 


28          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THURMAN  ON  THE 

as  unsullied  in  our  great  office  as  he  was,  and  as  deserving  of 
even  so  poor  a  tribute  as  I  have  offered  to  his  memory. 


Address  of  Mr.  THURMAN,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  my  acquaintance  with  our  deceased  brother 
began  when  I  took  my  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives 
in  the  Twenty-ninth  Congress.  He  had  then  been  for  four 
years  a  member  of  that  House,  and  had  become  a  man  of  mark 
and  influence.  He  was  regarded  by  all  who  knew  him  as  a  man 
of  excellent  understanding,  sterling  integrity,  great  industry, 
and  most  amiable  manners.  He  was  a  member  of  what  was 
then  considered  the  great  committee  of  the  House — the  Com 
mittee  of  Ways  and  Means — which  then  discharged  the  duties 
that  are  now  performed  by  that  committee  and  by  the  Commit 
tee  on  Appropriations ;  and  I  happen  to  know  that  its  distin 
guished  and  very  able  chairman,  General  McKay,  of  North  Car 
olina,  regarded  him  as  one  of  its  most  industrious  and  useful 
members. 

Mr.  President,  it  is  unnecessary  for  me  to  follow  Mr.  HOUS 
TON  in  his  subsequent  distinguished  career.  It  has  been  por 
trayed  in  the  remarks  of  those  who  have  preceded  me  far  better 
than  I  could  portray  it.  A  man  who  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  his 
constituents  in  so  high  a  degree  that  he  was  nine  times  elected 
a  Eepresentative  in  Congress,  and  in  five  instances  without  op 
position  ;  was  twice  elected  a  member  of  this  body,  was  chosen 
governor  of  his  State  by  a  decided  majority  at  a  time  of  great 
difficulty,  and  when  the  counsels  and  services  of  her  best  and 
wisest  men  were  needed,  could  not  have  been  a  man  of  mere 
ordinary  ability  or  standing.  No,  sir ;  he  must  have  possessed, 
he  did  possess,  qualities  that  eminently  fitted  him  for  public 
service  under  a  republican  form  of  government,  to  which  he 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  29 

was  so  much  attached,  and  which  caused  his  death  to  be  de 
plored  by  all  the  people  of  his  State,  and  not  by  them  alone, 
but  by  all  who  have  heard  of  his  virtues  and  regret  to  see  a 
good  and  great  man  fall. 


Address  of  Mr.  SAULSBURY,  of  Delaware. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  with  the  late  Senator  HOUSTON  I  had  no 
acquaintance  until  he  became  a  member  of  this  body.  From 
what  I  had  heard  and  know  of  his  public  life  I  had  previously 
formed  a  high  estimate  of  his  character,  an  estimate  which  was 
fully  justified  by  all  I  saw  of  him  during  his  brief  service  in 
the  Senate.  Association  with  him  upon  two  of  the  standing 
committees  of  the  Senate  afforded  me  the  opportunity  of  ob 
serving  the  elements  of  his  character,  which  for  a  period  of 
more  than  forty  years  secured  for  him  the  uninterrupted  confi 
dence  of  the  people  of  his  State. 

Senator  HOUSTON  entered  public  life  at  an  early  age  and  was 
almost  continuously  thereafter  connected  with  public  affairs. 
He  filled  the  highest  and  most  responsible  positions  in  the  State 
in  which  he  lived,  among  others  was  twice  elected  to  the  guber 
natorial  office,  and  for  nearly  twenty  years  represented  the  Con 
gressional  district  in  which  he  resided  in  the  other  House  of 
Congress.  Of  the  manner  in  which  he  discharged  the  duties 
of  the  various  positions  he  held  I  need  not  here  speak.  His 
election  to  the  Senate  after  more  than  forty  years  spent  in  pub 
lic  life  is  proof  of  his  fidelity  to  every  trust  as  well  as  the  recog 
nition  of  his  services  and  worth  by  those  he  had  served  so  long 
and  so  well.  Few  men  have  been  able  to  maintain  for  so  great 
a  period  their  hold  on  popular  favor.  Neither  integrity  of 
character  nor  the  faithful  discharge  of  public  duty  is  at  all  times 
able  to  protect  against  the  shafts  of  envy  or  the  intrigues  of 


30          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SAULSBURY  ON  THE 

ambitious  rivalry.  The  retention  by  the  late  Senator  of  the 
unabated  confidence  of  the  people  among  whom  he  lived  and  in 
whose  service  he  had  spent  his  life  is  at  once  the  proof  of  his 
merit  and  his  highest  eulogy. 

A  brief  acquaintance  with  Mr.  HOUSTON  was  sufficient  to 
understand  the  traits  of  his  character  which  gave  him  a  con 
trolling  influence  with  the  people  of  his  State.  He  was  a  man 
of  remarkably  sound  judgment,  which  gave  to  his  opinions  great 
weight,  and  assisted  in  the  formation  of  public  sentiment  on  all 
questions  affecting  the  interests  of  the  State.  Endowed  by  nature 
with  strong  intellectual  power,  and  dependent  in  early  life  for 
success  upon  himself,  he  was  cautious  in  the  expression  of  opin 
ions  upon  public  questions  until  he  had  investigated  the  subject 
to  which  they  related.  His  conclusions,  formed  by  reflection 
and  examination,  were  usually  found  to  be  correct,  and  not  only 
controlled  his  own  action  but  influenced  largely  the  views  and 
action  of  others.  He  was  a  man  of  marked  decision  of  charac 
ter,  and  impressed  others  with  his  honesty  by  a  steadfast  ad 
herence  to  his  convictions.  He  was  not,  however,  intolerant  or 
censorious  toward  others,  but  conceded  to  all  the  same  inde 
pendence  of  thought  and  action  which  he  exercised  himself. 
His  firmness  in  the  maintenance  of  his  own  views  was  not  the 
result  of  too  high  an  estimate  of  self  or  too  mean  an  opinion  of 
others,  and  evinced  neither  bigotry  nor  the  want  of  a  proper 
respect  for  those  with  whom  he  differed.  Frankness  and  can 
dor  marked  throughout  his  life  his  intercourse  with  the  people 
of  his  State.  Concealment  was  no  part  of  his  nature.  He  was 
honest  with  himself  and  candid  with  others.  He  sought  no 
disguises  and  resorted  to  no  subterfuges,  but  avowed  with  manly 
courage  the  views  he  entertained  and  the  purposes  he  sought 
to  accomplish.  Nothing  detracts  more  from  character  than 
duplicity,  and  nothing  commands  more  universal  respect  than 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  31 

frankness  and  honesty.  '  Senator  HOUSTON  was  never  misun 
derstood  by  friends  or  opponents,  and  commanded  the  admira 
tion  of  both  by  the  candor  exhibited  as  well  in  public  as  in 
private  life.  He  stood  revealed  in  his  true  character  before  the 
people  of  his  State,  and  was  trusted  for  his  integrity  and  loved 
for  his  honesty.  He  was  faithful  to  every  trust,  discharging 
the  obligations  imposed  by  the  positions  in  which  he  was 
placed,  not  only  willingly  but  cheerfully,  shunning  neither  the 
labors  nor  responsibilities  which  they  entailed. 

As  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  in  the 
House  of  Kepresentatives  his  assiduity  and  industry  were  pro 
verbial.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  he  familiarized  himself  with 
the  details  of  every  bill  brought  forward  by  the  committee,  and 
was  prepared  at  all  times  to  furnish  required  information  upon 
the  measures  under  his  charge,  and  to  give  a  satisfactory  ex 
planation  of  the  reasons  controlling  the  committee  in  their 
presentation.  He  came  into  the  Senate  at  an  advanced  period 
of  life,  with  energies  doubtless  somewhat  relaxed  by  the  weight 
of  years  and  the  labors  of  a  long  public  service ;  yet  he  was 
punctual  in  his  attendance  in  the  Senate  and  attentive  to  the 
business  under  consideration.  He  was  likewise  prompt  in  the 
discharge  of  the  duties  assigned  him  by  the  committees  of  the 
body  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  his  opinions  both  in  the 
Senate  and  in  committee  commanded  the  respectful  attention 
of  his  associates.  During  his  last  illness,  I  am  informed,  his 
thoughts  frequently  turned  to  his  duties  here.  In  a  letter 
which  I  received  from  him  after  the  commencement  of  the  pres 
ent  session  he  expressed  the  hope  that  he  should  be  with  us  in 
a  few  days  and  ready  to  perform  any  duty  assigned  him  by  one 
of  the  committees  to  which  he  referred.  He  was  social  and 
genial  in  his  nature,  free  alike  from  austerity  and  undue  famil 
iarity.  Mr.  HOUSTON  was  warmly  attached  to  his  friends,  and 


32          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SAULSBURY  ON  THE 

in  bis  intercourse  with  them  sought  to  contribute  to  their  hap 
piness  as  much  as  secure  his  own.  There  was  nothing  selfish 
in  his  attachments.  He  regarded  his  friends  too  highly  to  esti 
mate  their  value  by  services  to  himself,  and  some  of  his  most 
cherished  friendships  were  based  alone  upon  common  sympa 
thies  and  congeniality  of  temper  and  disposition.  Toward 
those  with  whom  he  differed  he  was  generous  and  charitable ; 
no  traces  of  malevolence  mar  the  record  of  his  life,  which 
was  singularly  free  from  those  asperities  which  too  often 
embitter  the  lives  of  public  men. 

The  close  of  a  life  well  spent,  like  the  setting  sun,  reflects 
back  an  influence  on  the  world  behind.  For  long  years  to  come 
the  people  of  Alabama  will  cherish  with  just  pride  the  mem 
ory  of  one  they  delighted  to  honor  and  whose  services  contrib 
uted  so  largely  to  the  prosperity  of  the  State.  I  shall  not  ob 
trude  upon  the  domestic  circle  to  speak  of  him  as  a  husband 
and  father.  Others  who  know  him  better  will  speak  of  him  in 
that  character.  In  his  home  centered  his  greatest  interest,  and 
to  his  wife  and  children  were  given  his  tenderest  thoughts  and 
warmest  affections.  No  words  of  sympathy  can  mitigate  their 
grief,  or  repair  the  loss  they  have  sustained.  To  them  he  has 
left  an  unsullied  memory,  a  noble  example,  and  an  honored 
name,  and  to  the  people  of  his  State  the  results  of  a  life  de 
voted  to  their  service. 

Senators,  the  death  of  one  so  lately  in  our  midst  admonishes 
us  of  our  own  mortality  and  the  approach  of  that  inevitable 
hour  that  awaits  us  all.  May  we  so  "number  our  days"  that 
we  shall  each  be  ready  for  the  summons  when  it  comes. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  33 


Address  of  Mr.  PENDLETON,  of  Ohio. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  I  cannot  speak,  as  others  have  spoken,  of 
this  dead  Senator,  as  one  who  knew  him  in  the  daily  walks  of 
his  long  public  life,  or  in  the  sacred  circle  of  his  family  and 
home.  But  I  knew  him  well,  I  esteemed  him  greatly,  I  loved 
him  much ;  and  I  cannot  refrain  from  adding  my  leaflet  to  the 
rich  garlands  which  appreciation  and  good-will  are  to-day 
placing  on  his  grave. 

No  marble  marks  his  couch  of  lowly  sleep, 
But  living  statues  there  are  seen  to  weep. 
Affection's  semblance  bends  not  o'er  his  tomb  ; 
Affection's  self  deplores  his  sudden  doom. 

When  I  entered  Congress,  young  in  years,  still  younger  in 
experience,  I  found  him  an  old  and  honored  member,  enjoying 
the  honors  and  wielding  the  powers  of  our  party  organization. 
We  sat  in  the  old  Chamber  sanctified  by  so  many  memories, 
which  has  since  been  made  our  Walhalla — the  temple  of  our 
immortals.  My  seat  was  near  him,  and  our  association  there 
gave  rise  to  a  friendship  which  was  as  fresh  and  warm  when 
we  met  at  the  extra  session  last  spring  as  when  we  parted  in 
sadness  in  1861.  In  that  long  interval  I  had  seen  him  but 
twice ;  once,  for  a  moment,  when  he  came  to  Washington  on 
an  errand  of  mercy,  and  once  again  when  as  governor  his 
practical  good  sense  was  rescuing  Alabama  from  the  accumu 
lated  evils  of  reconstruction.  He  was  serious,  earnest,  indus 
trious,  patient,  painstaking,  honest,  in  the  consideration  of 
public  questions.  After  investigation  he  was  clear,  decided, 
firm,  undoubting  in  his  conclusions.  He  was  unswerving 
in  carrying  those  conclusions  into  execution. 

A  strong  sense  of  duty  was  the  foundation  and  the  main 
spring  of  his  investigation  and  his  action.  He  never  wavered 


34          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  PENDLETON  ON  THE 

between  duty  and  inclination.  He  never  gave  to  party  or  to 
self  what  was  meant  for  country  and  mankind. 

If  his  intellectual  powers  did  not  reach  the  highest  realms 
where  genius  sits  enthroned,  their  steadfastness,  their  steady 
impulsion  toward  the  truth,  the  moral  qualities  which  lay  be 
neath  their  activities,  gave  to  their  exercise  the  widest  range 
of  practical  usefulness. 

He  had  knowledge  which  comes  from  close  study  and  keen 
observation.  He  had  judgment  which  accurately  collates  all 
knowledge  and  discerns  the  end  from  the  beginning.  He  had 
wisdom  which,  seeing  both,  chooses  the  better  way.  He  was 
courteous  and  gentle  and  kind.  Even  in  his  short  career  on 
this  floor,  his  simple,  gentle  manners  showed  to  us  all — 

That  best  portion  of  a  good  man's  life, 
His  little,  nameless,  unremembered  acts 
Of  kindness  and  of  love. 

For  he  had  mastered  that  Divine  charity  which  teaches — 

Never  to  blend  our  pleasure,  or  our  pride, 
With  sorrow  of  the  meanest  thing  that  feels. 

He  was  modesty  itself,  and  shrunk  from  self-assertion  as  if  it 
were  almost  a  crime. 

I  dare  not  enter  the  sacred  circle  of  a  loving  family,  or  dis 
turb  with  stranger's  accents  the  silent  sorrow  of  a  stricken 
fireside.  There  his  kind  and  genial  and  cheery  nature  evoked 
a  pious  gladness  like  that  which  the  gay  carol  and  the  joyous 
flight  of  the  morning  lark  express  as  its  hymn  of  praise : 

Type  of  the  wise  who  soar  but  do  not  roam, 
True  to  the  kindred  points  of  Heaven  and  home. 

Mr.  President,  in  the  presence  of  this  death,  coming  to  one 
so  full  of  honors  and  of  years,  the  friend  of  us  all,  the  loved 
associate  of  some,  we  must  pause. 

'Tis  greatly  wise  to  talk  with  our  past  hours, 
And  ask  them  what  report  they  bore  to  heaven. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  35 

This  is  the  converse  which  needs  no  speech.  It  is  the  com 
munion  which  we  must  have  with  our  own  hearts,  and  be  still. 
It  is  the  introspection  which  Plato  coveted : 

Thou  gazest  on  the  stars, 

My  soul ! 

Oh,  gladly  would  I  be 

Yon  starry  skies  with  thousand  eyes, 

That  I  might  gaze  on  thee ! 

It  is  the  introspection  which,  if  we  are  faithful,  will  in  the 
end  compel  our  awakened  spirits  to  hear  and  to  heed  the  ad 
monition — 

Mourn  not  the  perishing  of  each  fair  toy  ; 
Ye  were  ordained  to  do,  not  to  enjoy! 
To  suffer,  which  is  nobler  than  to  dare. 
A  sacred  burden  is  the  life  ye  bear  ; 
Look  on  it,  lift  it,  bear  it  solemnly. 
Stand  up  and  walk  beneath  it  steadfastly : 
Fail  not  for  sorrow,  falter  not  for  sin, 
But  onward,  upward,  till  the  goal  ye  win. 


Address  of  Mr.  PRYOR,  of  Alabama. 

Mil.  PRESIDENT,  this  occasion  adds  further  gloom  and 
deepens  the  grief  which  I  have  heretofore  felt  and  which  is 
necessarily  further  intensified  by  my  surroundings,  occupy 
ing,  as  I  do,  the  seat  of  my  departed  friend  and  companion, 
Hon.  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  whom  by  mysterious  and  unac 
countable  events  in  God's  providence  I  have  the  honor  to  im 
mediately  succeed.  While  this  is  true,  it  is  nevertheless  prop 
er  and,  as  I  am  advised,  within  the  usage  of  this  body,  that  I, 
too,  in  conjunction  with  other  Senators,  should  express  regret 
on  account  of  his  loss  to  this  Chamber,  and  as  a  citizen  con 
tribute  a  tear  to  that  stream  of  sorrow  that  flows  through  the 
heart  of  the  people  of  his  State,  who  are  sorely  bereaved  by 


36  ADDRESS   OP   MB.   PBYOR   ON   THE 

the  death  of  their  trusted  adviser,  leader,  and  representative. 
Therefore,  in  addition  to  the  just  and  touching  remarks  of 
other  Senators,  I  ask  to  submit  some  facts  from  which  I  de 
duce  the  conclusion  which  I  shall  hereafter  announce,  that 
makes  up  the  supremacy  of  the  deceased  as  a  citizen  and 
statesman.  I  was  intimately  acquainted  and  closely  connected 
with  Senator  HOUSTON  for  forty  years.  Living  in  the  same 
town,  county,  and  State,  a  portion  of  this  time  I  was  a  mem 
ber  of  his  family,  ate  at  the  same  table,  and  slept  under  the 
same  roof;  we  were  practicing  lawyers  at  the  same  bar,  and 
partners  for  many  years  in  the  practice,  members  of  the  same 
political  party,  and  in  each  and  every  relationship  upon  the 
most  cordial  and  confidential  terms,  with  frequent  interchange 
of  views  and  opinions,  and  in  which  he  disclosed  his  political 
sentiments,  opinions,  desires,  hopes,  and  fears.  And,  now,  Mr. 
President  and  Senators,  with  these  means  and  from  those  op 
portunities  I  am  prepared  to  affirm  and  claim  for  the  deceased 
that  he  was  a  man  free  from  deformity  of  mind,  body,  and 
heart.  He  was  a  man  impressive  and  imposing  in  his  personal 
appearance.  His  mind  was  vigorous,  analytical,  quick  of  per-' 
ception,  searching,  sufficiently  inquisitive,  detective,  and  dis 
criminative.  A  mind  that  came  to  conclusions  slowly  but 
certainly,  not  because  of  its  dullness,  but  because  of  its  cau 
tion,  its  prudence,  its  sense  of  propriety,  its  sense  of  recti 
tude,  and  when  reached  never  found  unjust,  prejudiced,  biased 
or  partial,  and  rarely  incorrect,  standing  and  withstanding  the 
severest  tests.  Added  to  this  was  a  judgment  sound,  well  de 
fined,  and  trustworthy,  and  which  when  once  formed  was  firm 
and  immovable.  He  was  a  man  of  foresight  and  judgment 
profound.  He  was  a  safe  counselor,  sagacious,  well-trained, 
and  admirably  versed  in  the  principles  of  wise  statesmanship 
and  public  policy;  an  instructive,  judicious,  and  adhesive 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.    37 

friend,  unselfish,  never  withholding  his  views,  but  promptly 
and  fully  disclosing  the  same  to  his  associates.  His  industry 
in  search  of  truth  was  rarely  equaled.  He  could  not  be  unduly 
persuaded,  and  was  beyond  seduction  to  do  a  wrong.  With 
those  capabilities,  combined  with  honesty,  fidelity,  unswerving 
principles,  and  a  high  sense  of  honor,  he  ascended  in  unbroken 
triumph  through  all  grades  of  life  from  the  humblest  walks  to 
the  exalted  station  of  a  Senator  in  its  truest  sense. 

As  a  debater  he  was  sagacious,  ponderous,  and  convincing; 
a  man  emphatically  of  argumentation.  He  had  no  superior  and 
few  equals  when  dealing  with  questions  of  fact ;  his  powers  of 
separation  and  condensation  of  facts  and  their  application  were 
wonderful.  On  questions  of  law,  discriminating,  clear,  and 
forcible,  with  great  capacity  to  present  singleness  of  point.  In 
debate  his  manner  was  courteous,  becoming,  earnest,  attractive, 
and  respectful,  especially  toward  his  adversary,  with  a  marked 
toleration  in  respect  to  those  differing  with  him  in  views  or 
sentiments.  There  dwelt  within  that  house  of  clay,  not  only  a 
capacious  mind,  but  also  a  heart  open  and  frank,  and  one  that 
knew  no  guile,  no  hate — one  that  ever  vibrated  to  the  touch  of 
honor,  sympathy,  and  justice.  If  upon  any  occasion  he  was 
informed  or  he  felt  that  he  had  or  may  have  unintentionally 
wronged  his  fellow,  he  was  quick  to  offer  or  make  amends; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  he  was  patient,  forbearing,  and  forgiv 
ing  if  his  fellow  wronged  him.  Yet  while  this  was  true  of  him, 
if  occasion  demanded,  he  was  resolute  and  manly  in  the  main 
tenance  of  his  rights  and  self-respect.  As  a  representative  he 
was  faithful  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties.  He  applied  the  rule, 
equally  good  in  morals  as  in  law,  that  the  trustee,  agent,  or 
public  servant  should  take  and  bestow  the  same  care,  do  and 
cause  to  be  done  to  those  whom  he  represented,  as  a  prudent 
and  discreet  man  did  or  should  do  with  his  own;  and  by  this 


38  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   PRYOR   ON   THE 

rule  he  squared  all  of  his  representative  acts.  And  there  can 
be  no  time  or  place  in  his  long  and  useful  representative  life  to 
be  found  that  he  did  not  apply  and  enforce  this  rule  of  con 
duct.  He  fnJly  recognized  the  important  fact  that  this  country 
and  government,  under  the  Constitution,  belonged  to  the  people, 
and  that  this  right  should  be  respected  and  guarded,  and  that 
the  will  of  his  people  should  be  done,  and  not  his.  So  feeling, 
believing,  and  acting  through  life,  he  retained  untarnished  the 
warm  affection  of  his  people,  not  because  and  by  the  arts  of 
demagogy  or  by  appeals  to  the  prejudices  and  the  baser  pas 
sions  of  humanity,  but  by  his  masterly  argumentation,  the  firm 
ness  and  consistency  of  his  convictions,  and  the  devotion  to  the 
good  of  his  country.  Hence  they  honored  him  in  life,  and  bless 
him  and  his  memory  and  with  us  mourn  his  loss. 

While  he  was  ever  watchful  of  the  welfare  of  his  State  and 
the  good  of  his  people,  he  was  nevertheless  national  in  his 
views  and  feelings,  greatly  desiring  the  good  of  the  whole 
country,  but  having  grave  doubts  and  serious  forebodings  as 
to  its  future  which  greatly  annoyed  him,  for  it  was  his  great 
desire  that  the  Government  in  essence  should  be  transmitted  as 
it  had  been  received  by  him  from  his  progenitors.  And  I  can 
truthfully  assert  that  if  a  love  of  country  and  civil  liberty,  with 
guarantees  of  life,  liberty,  and  property,  constitute  the  patriot, 
then  Senator  HOUSTON  lived  and  died  a  patriot;  that,  if  views 
and  sentiments  based  upon  the  highest  order  of  ability  and 
thorough  cultivation,  that  embraced  the  whole  country  and 
people,  with  the  full  recognition  of  equal  rights,  and  without 
favor,  distinction,  or  prejudice,  makes  the  statesman,  then  Sen 
ator  HOUSTON  lived  and  died  a  statesman. 

In  his  family  he  was  courtly  and  tender  as  a  husband,  as  a 
father  affectionate  and  commanding;  in  bearing  toward  his 
fellow-citizens  kind,  affable,  polite,  and  respectful,  approximat- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  39 

ing  cordiality.  For  there  was  no  station  or  place  of  preferment 
to  which  he  had  attained  in  which  he  failed  to  remember  that 
he,  too,  was  born  of  a  woman,  of  few  days,  and  alike  subject  to 
trouble  and  death. 

In  conclusion,  Mr.  President,  borrowing  an  idea  and  some 
what  of  phraseology  :  There  was  a  man  that  lived  and  died  in 
the  State  of  Alabama,  and  that  mail  was  upright,  and  one  that 
feared  God  and  eschewed  evil,  and  that  man  was  the  dead 
Senator,  Hon.  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  who  died  full  of  days,  full 
of  usefulness,  and  full  of  honors;  whose  life  I  shall  try  to 
emulate,  and  whose  views  I  shall  be  pleased  to  see  accom 
plished. 

Mr.  President,  I  ask  for  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions  offered 
by  my  colleague. 

The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously. 

Mr.  PRYOE.  As  a  further  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory 
of  Mr.  HOUSTON,  I  move  that  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to ;  and  (at  two  o'clock  and  twenty- 
five  minutes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


OF   THR^^ 

[UNIVERSITY 
^r 

^i. 


PROCEEDINGS 


HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 


JANUARY    6,    188O. 


Mr.  FORNEY.  Mr.  SPEAKER,  it  becomes  my  painful  duty 
to  announce  to  this  House  the  death  of  Hon.  GEORGE  S. 
HOUSTON,  late  United  States  Senator  from  the  State  of  Ala 
bama.  He  died  at  his  residence  at  Athens,  Alabama,  on  the 
31st  of  last  December.  I  desire,  sir,  to  present  the  following 
resolutions ;  and  I  shall  further  ask  that  the  House,  at  some 
future  day,  set  apart  some  time  for  the  consideration  of  appro 
priate  memorial  resolutions : 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives  have  heard 
with  profound  sorrow  of  the  death  of  Hon.  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  late  Sen 
ator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  tender  to  his 
bereaved  family  their  sincere  sympathy  and  condolence. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  testimony  of  the  respect  they  bear  the  memory  of  the 
deceased,  this  House  do  now  adjourn  until  twelve  o'clock  to-morrow. 

The  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted ;  and  accordingly 
(at  one  o'clock  and  forty-three  minutes  p.  m.)  the  House  ad 
journed. 

41 


ADDRESSES 


DEATH  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON, 

A  SENATOR  FROM  ALABAMA. 


DELIVERED  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

WEDNESDAY,  MARCH  3,  1H&0. 


Mr.  FOEKEY.  Mr.  SPEAKER,  I  ask  that  the  resolutions 
from  the  Senate  on  the  death  of  the  late  Hon.  GEORGE  S. 
HOUSTON  be  taken  from  the  Speaker's  table  and  read. 

The  SPEAKER.  The  Chair  lays  before  the  House  the  fol 
lowing  resolutions  from  the  Senate. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

February  26,  1880. 

Eesolved,  That  the  Senate  has  heard  with  regret  of  the  death  of  Hon. 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  a  Senator  from  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  extends  to 
the  family  of  the  deceased  Senator  and  to  the  people  of  Alabama  sincere 
condolence  in  their  bereavement. 

II.  That  the  long  public  service  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  has  been  marked 
by  fidelity  to  his  convictions  of  duty,  by  industry  and  patience  in  his 
labors  for  the  public  welfare,  by  distinguished  ability  in  the  legislative 
councils  of  the  United  States,  and  by  devoted  and  wise  services  to  Ala 
bama  as  governor  of  that  State. 

43 


44  ADDRESS  OF  MB.  FORNEY  ON  THE 


III.  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  transmit  to  the  family  of  the  de 
ceased,  and  to  the  governor  of  Alabama,  a  copy  of  these  resolutions,  with 
the  action  of  the  Senate  thereon. 

Mr.  FORNEY.     I  offer  the  following  resolutions,  which  I 
send  to  the  Clerk's  desk. 
The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

Resolved,  That  the  House  of  Representatives  has  received  with  profound 
sorrow  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  Hon.  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  late 
a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the  State  of  Alabama. 

Resolved,  That  the  business  of  the  House  be  now  suspended  to  allow  suit 
able  tributes  to  be  paid  to  his  many  virtues ;  and,  as  a  further  mark  of  re 
spect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased  Senator,  the  House,  at  the  conclusion 
of  said  tributes,  shall  adjourn. 


Address  of  Mr.  FORNEY,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  Alabama  asks  this  House  to  pause  for  the 
present  in  its  legislative  labors,  and  unite  with  her  in  paying  a 
suitable  tribute  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  her  deceased  Sen 
ator,  Hon.  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  who  died  at  his  home  in 
Athens  on  the  31st  of  December  last,  beloved,  honored,  and 
esteemed  by  the  citizens  of  his  State.  The  announcement  of 
his  death  was  a  shock  to  the  people,  who  had  so  recently, 
through  their  representatives,  conferred  upon  him  the  highest 
position  within  their  gift.  He  lived  to  a  ripe  old  age ;  he  had 
reached  his  three  score  and  ten  years. 

Senator  HOUSTON  was  born  in  Williamson  County,  in  the 
State  of  Tennessee.  Although  not  a  native  of  Alabama,  yet 
he  had  resided  within  her  borders  full  sixty  years,  from  the 
date  of  her  admission  into  the  Union  as  a  State.  He  selected 
for  his  profession  the  law.  Soon  after  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar,  on  account  of  his  studious  habits,  close  attention  to  busi 
ness,  and  exemplary  conduct,  the  people  of  Lauderdale  County 
elected  him  to  the  Legislature.  Rising  rapidly  in  his  profes- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.    45 

sion,  in  1837  he  was  elected  solicitor  of  the  circuit  in  which 
he  resided.  While  in  that  position  he  made  groat  reputation 
as  a  lawyer  of  ability,  and  evinced,  at  that  early  period  of  his 
career,  that  unimpeachable  integrity,  earnest  devotion  to  duty, 
and  sacred  regard  for  the  inviolability  of  public  trust  that 
governed  him  in  his  future  political  life  and  made  him  so  con 
spicuous  among  his  fellow-citizens.  So  well  had  he  discharged 
the  duties  of  his  office,  so  satisfactory  his  conduct,  at  the  close 
of  his  term  as  solicitor  the  people  elected  him  a  member  of  the 
Twenty-seventh  Congress.  He  took  his  seat  in  this  House  in 
the  year  1841,  and  was  successively  re-elected  a  member,  fre 
quently  without  opposition,  until  J861,  except  to  the  Thirty- 
first  Congress,  when  he  declined  a  re-election. 

I  will  not  stop  to  speak  of  the  great  services  rendered  his 
State  or  the  country  during  the  eighteen  years  he  sat  as  a 
member  upon  this  floor.  His  record  speaks  for  itself.  While 
a  member  of  this  body  he  occupied  the  most  important  posi 
tions  as  chairman  of  prominent  committees.  During  his  long 
service  as  a  member  of  Congress  he  stood  high  in  the  esteem 
of  the  great  and  good  men  with  whom  he  was  associated  in 
that  day  and  time.  He  was  one  of  the  color-guard  of  the 
Treasury ;  his  record  shows  with  what  watchful  care  he  guarded 
it.  He  was  an  able  and  faithful  public  servant;  a  true  patriot, 
his  patriotism  was  not  bounded  by  State  lines,  but  embraced 
his  entire  country.  Integrity  was  the  granite  base  upon  which 
he  reared  the  superstructure  of  his  political  life ;  that  sterling 
integrity  placed  him  beyond  the  reach  of  temptation.  At  the 
close  of  his  long  public  service  no  blot,  no  stain  tarnished  his 
bright  escutcheon.  iS"o  bribe  ever  polluted  his  fingers  or  left 
a  dark  spot  in  his  hands.  At  all  times  with  him  "  a  good  name 
was  rather  to  be  chosen  than  great  riches,  a  loving  favor  than 
silver  and  gold." 


46  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  FORNEY  ON  THE 

He  was  a  popular  and  successful  man.  To  his  great  popu 
larity  and  success  in  life  he  was  indebted  to  his  native  talent, 
his  known  integrity,  his  purity,  honesty,  and  to  his  knowledge 
of  human  nature.  He  studied  the  people  more  and  knew  them 
better  than  he  did  books.  He  was  a  good  judge  of  the  popu 
lar  feeling  and  popular  demand.  He  was  truly  the  friend  of 
the  people,  he  consulted  their  wishes,  conditions,  and  interest. 
He  honestly  desired  their  happiness  and  welfare,  and  pos 
sessed  the  happy  faculty  of  making  them  believe  it.  The 
people  believed  he  was  honest  and  true ;  they  knew  he  was 
capable  and  faithful,  and  were  ever  ready  to  place  him  in 
power.  He  was  never  defeated  before  the  people  for  an  office. 
As  a  debater  he  had  few  superiors  upon  the  stump.  He  was 
powerful  in  a  political  campaign.  He  could  attract  the  atten 
tion  of  the  masses  and  hold  it  with  interest  to  the  close  of  his 
address.  He  was  not  a  man  of  brilliant  or  showy  talent,  nor 
what  the  world  calls  a  genius.  He  never  originated  new  de 
partures  in  politics,  but  clung  with  tenacity  to  the  old  land 
marks  established  by  the  fathers.  Neither  did  he  dazzle  the 
country  with  his  eloquence  or  glowing  declamation.  Nor  was 
he  an  impassioned  orator,  or  one  that  charmed  for  the  moment. 
He  appealed  to  the  judgment,  not  to  the  passions.  In  his 
speeches  to  the  people  his  end  and  aim  was  to  be  understood, 
to  carry  conviction  to  the  minds  of  his  hearers,  to  make  an 
impression  which  would  last.  He  would  never  drop  the  iron- 
wrought  link  in  his  chain  of  argument  to  supply  it  with  the 
silvery  net- work  of  poesy.  He  was  what  might  be  called  an 
instructive  and  convincing  speaker — one  that  carried  his  point. 

The  crowning  acts  of  his  life,  those  that  endeared  him  most 
to  the  people  of  his  State,  were  the  services  rendered  them 
while  governor  of  Alabama.  His  political  friends,  unsolicited 
by  him,  in  the  year  1874  nominated  him  as  their  standard- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OP   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  47 

bearer  for  governor.  The  people  elected  him  by  a  decided 
majority.  When  he  took  control  of  the  helm  of  state  as  gov 
ernor  of  Alabama  there  was  no  money  in  the  treasury,  and  the 
great  problem  then  to  be  solved  was  the  debt  question — the 
debt  which  had  been  illegally  contracted  during  the  days  of 
reconstruction,  while  Alabama  was  under  the  dominion  of  a 
class  of  men  who  had  flocked,  like  birds  of  prey,  within  her 
borders  to  feed  and  gorge  upon  the  little  that  the  war  had  left 
her  people ;  men  whose  interests  were  not  identified  with  the 
best  interest  of  the  State,  whose  end  and  aim  were  personal 
aggrandizement.  During  those  days  extravagance  and  cor 
ruption  had  held  full  sway;  an  immense  debt  had  been  wrong 
fully  fastened  upon  the  State.  He  entered  upon  the  discharge 
of  his  duties  as  governor  with  a  determination  to  bring  relief 
to  his  suffering  people.  He  was  equal  to  the  great  emergency. 
Economy  in  all  matters  of  state  became  his  watchword.  Un 
der  his  administration  the  people  soon  began  to  have  faith  in 
their  ultimate  redemption,  hope  was  stimulated  and  confidence 
inspired.  At  the  close  of  his  first  term  the  people  almost  with 
one  acclaim  said,  "Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant," 
and  re-elected  him  by  an  immense  majority.  While  governor 
the  State  commissioned  him  and  two  others  of  her  citizens 
alike  distinguished  for  their  ability,  honesty,  and  probity  (Hon. 
T.  B.  Bethea  and  General  L.  W.  Lawler),  with  power  to  adjust 
and  settle  the  State's  indebtedness.  The  result  of  the  labors 
of  the  commission  met  with  the  cordial  approval  of  the  people. 
The  debt  was  adjusted  honorably  to  the  State  and  satisfactory 
to  the  creditors.  It  can  be  truly  said  of  him  that  in  the  many 
responsible  positions  which  he  filled  during  his  forty  years' 
service  as  a  public  man  he  never  failed  to  prove  himself  equal 
to  the  duties  devolved  upon  him  and  worthy  of  the  confidence 
and  trust  reposed  in  him. 


48          ADDRESS  OF  MB.  STEPHENS  ON  THE 

He  possessed  administrative  and  executive  capacity  of  no 
ordinary  character.  His  administration  of  the  affairs  of  state 
while  governor  was  such  as  commanded  the  esteem  and  confi 
dence  of  his  political  opponents  as  well  as  his  party  friends. 
As  an  evidence  of  the  people's  high  appreciation  of  his  services, 
the  legislature  of  his  State  elected  him  at  the  close  of  his  term 
as  governor,  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  He  took  his 
seat  at  the  commencement  of  the  late  extra  session.  He  was 
not  permitted  to  serve  out  the  term  of  his  election.  Death 
stopped  him  in  his  useful  career.  He  died  with  his  harness 
upon  him.  He  has  crossed  over  the  river.  His  manly  and 
stalwart  form  lies  in  the  graveyard  of  the  village  in  which  he 
spent  the  greater  portion  of  his  life.  He  sleeps  in  the  beauti 
ful  valley  of  the  Tennessee,  the  loveliest  portion  of  Alabama. 

No  lovelier  land  the  prophet  viewed, 
When  on  the  sacred  mount  he  stood, 
And  saw  below,  transcendent  shine, 
The  streams  and  groves  of  Palestine. 

There  he  will  rest,  his  dust  mingling  with  the  dust  of  kin 
dred,  friends,  and  neighbors,  until  the  morn  of  resurrection,  his 
memory  enshrined  in  the  hearts  of  a  grateful  people,  his  name 
enrolled  on  the  list  of  Alabama's  most  illustrious  dead,  long 
to  be  remembered  as  one  who  had  done  his  State  some  service, 
who  died  as  he  had  lived,  "  an  honest  man,  the  noblest  work 
of  God." 


Address  of  Mr.  STEPHENS,  of  Georgia. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  I  second  the  resolutions  submitted  by  the 
gentleman  [Mr.  FORNEY]  from  the  seventh  Congressional  dis 
trict  of  Alabama.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  one  in  the  present 
House  from  whom  this  tribute  to  the  memory  and  eminent  vir 
tues  of  the  deceased  could  more  appropriately  come  than  from 


LIFE   AND   CHAEACTEE   OF   GEOEGE   S.   HOUSTON.  49 

myself.  When  I  took  iny  seat  for  the  first  time  in  this  Hall — 
or  rather  the  old  Hall — on  the  llth  of  December,  1843,  I 
found  Mr.  HOUSTON  a  member.  He  was  two  years  ahead  of 
me  in  this  branch  of  the  public  service.  I  left  him  here  when  I 
retired  in  1859,  though  he  was  on  his  own  voluntary  action  not 
a  member  from  1849  to  1851.  When  I  met  him  he  had  during 
his  first  Congress  acquired  considerable  reputation  as  a  man 
of  ability,  integrity,  and  business  qualifications.  He  was  then 
on  the  Committee  on  Public  Lands.  Just  over  to  the  right  of 
the  aisle,  as  you  pass  from  the  Clerk's  desk  to  the  outer  center 
door,  he  sat  usually  engaged,  when  nothing  interesting  was 
occupying  the  attention  of  the  House,  in  reading  or  answer 
ing  letters  or  examining  papers.  He  seemed  never  to  be  idle. 
My  seat  was  far  off  to  the  left  of  the  Speaker,  near  the  outer 
row.  I  well  remember  the  first  impression  upon  my  mind  upon 
seeing  him  in  his  place.  During  our  association  on  this  floor 
I  met  him  often,  not  only  in  consultation  upon  public  matters, 
but  socially.  I  therefore  knew  him.  long,  well,  and  intimately. 
While  he  was  not  a  man  of  genius,  so  called,  yet  by  indus 
try,  application  and  assiduity  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  he 
rose  to  the  leadership  of  the  House — to  the  chairmanship  of 
the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  We  differed  in  political 
associations  during  the  whole  period  of  our  joint  service  on  this 
floor ;  but  in  the  essential  principles  of  the  true  Jeffersonian 
democratic  creed  we  never  differed.  Our  friendly  relations 
were  never  marred,  or  even  jarred,  during  our  long  association 
in  the  public  councils.  In  personal  appearance  Mr.  HOUSTON 
presented  a  fine  physique.  He  was  well  developed  in  manly 
form.  His  complexion  was  ruddy.  His  voice  was  strong  and 
good,  though  somewhat  sharp  and  shrill  for  a  man  of  his  size. 
It  was  exceedingly  penetrating.  In  debate  he  was  didactic, 
clear,  and  perspicuous.  In  social  qualities  he  was  always 


7  H 


50          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  STEPHENS  ON  THE 

agreeable  and  affable,  and  never  austere  in  manner.  He  pos 
sessed  great  equanimity  of  temper.  He  was  always  cheerful, 
and  never  was  seemingly  depressed  on  account  of  anything. 
He  was  ever  buoyant  in  spirit.  He  had  the  foititude  of  a 
Christian  with  the  philosophy  of  a  stoic.  In  oratory  he  sel 
dom  assumed  the  declamatory  style,  and  hence  was  never  re 
garded  as  among  the  brilliant  speakers  of  the  House.  His 
object  on  all  occasions  seemed  rather  to  convince  the  judgment 
by  logical  argument  than  to  enliven  the  imagination  by  rhetor 
ical  displays.  He  was  emphatically  a  man  of  work  and  busi 
ness.  Labor  was  his  pleasure.  With  him  it  seemed  that — 

The  bliss  of  life  is  the  bliss  of  toil. 

Such  were  a  few  of  the  many  virtues  and  excellences  of 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  by  which  he  rose  from  the  humblest 
walks  of  life  to  the  highest  honors  and  distinctions  his  fellow- 
citizens  could  bestow.  Sustained  by  honor,  truth,  integrity, 
and  uprightness  of  purpose,  with  a  spotless  purity  of  character 
during  a  long  and  eventful  career,  he  has  gone  to  his  grave 
leaving  a  name  that  will  perish  only  with  the  history  of  his 
country. 

In  referring,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  the  events  of  my  first  ac 
quaintance  with  my  distinguished  departed  friend  and  the 
very  memorable  occasion  in  my  life  when  I  first  took  my  seat 
in  the  Federal  House  of  Representatives,  reminiscences  of  very 
deep  impression  are  vividly  awakened  in  my  mind.  It  may 
not  be  inappropriate  in  these  funeral  ceremonies  to  recall 
some  of  these. 

It  was  nearly  forty  years  ago.  What  changes  have  taken 
place  since  then! — changes  especially  in  the  constituent  ele 
ments  and  the  personnel  of  this  House  and  the  other  wing  of 
the  Capitol,  as  well  as  the  controlling  actors  in  every  depart- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.     51 

ment  of  our  public  affairs.  In  respect  to  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  and  its  surroundings,  to  a  perfect  stranger  looking 
down  from  one  of  the  galleries  everything  would  seem  now 
quite  like  it  did  then.  He  would  see  the  same  conformation 
of  the  Hall,  the  same  arrangement  of  seats,  the  same  or  similar 
aisles.  In  looking  on  he  would  see  no  change  in  the  proceed 
ings  of  the  body.  He  would  see  the  same  routine  of  business; 
the  Speaker  in  the  chair  now  as  then;  the  clerks  at  the  desk 
now  as  then;  the  call  of  the  roll  now  as  then;  the  Sergeant-at- 
Arms — the  mace,  the  insignium  of  his  authority — the  Door 
keepers  and  pages  now  as  then.  The  House  itself  he  would 
see  now  composed,  as  then,  of  old,  middle-aged,  and  young. 
The  actors  in  the  drama,  to  one  so  looking  down,  would  appear 
to  be  the  same;  yet  how  different  are  the  individual  actors  in 
the  scenes  now  from  those  who  figured  upon  the  stage  at  that 
time. 

When  I  entered  Congress  John  W.  Jones,  of  Virginia,  was 
Speaker.  Then  just  over  there  to  the  left  sat  the  venerable 
John  Quiiicy  Adams,  ripened  with  age  and  honors,  and  whose 
learning  in  all  the  departments  of  science,  literature,  art,  his 
tory,  and  politics  was,  perhaps,  unsurpassed  in  his  day.  Around 
there  on  the  extreme  right  sat  Henry  A.  Wise,  the  distin 
guished  member  from  Accomack,  Virginia,  then  recognized 
as  the  most  eloquent  member  of  the  House.  He  was  soon 
transferred  to  a  higher  public  service.  A  little  in  his  rear  and 
still  on  the  right  of  the  Speaker  sat  Lucius  Q.  C.  Elmer,  an 
accomplished  member  from  New  Jersey,  who  was  then  at  the 
head  of  the  Committee  of  Elections,  who  is  still  living,  I  be 
lieve,  and  enjoying  in  his  old  age  that  otium  cum  dignitate 
which  is  the  crowning  glory  of  a  well-spent  life. 

Still  further  to  his  right  on  the  same  side  was  the  venerable 
William  Wilkins,  of  Pennsylvania,  then  at  the  head  of  the 


ADDRESS   OF   ME.    STEPHENS   ON   THE 


Committee  on  the  Judiciary.  A  little  in  front  of  him,  and 
near  where  Mr.  FERNANDO  WOOD  now  sits,  was  James  J. 
McKay,  of  North  Carolina,  then  head  of  the  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means.  In  all  respects  he  seemed  to  be  formed 
after  the  model  of  his  great  predecessor,  Nathaniel  Macon. 
Then  near  up  in  front  sat  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  one  of  the 
acknowledged  leaders  on  the  whig  side  of  the  Chamber.  Just 
over  on  the  other  side  of  the  middle  aisle,  on  the  left  of  the 
Speaker,  sat  the  brothers,  Joseph  E.  and  Jared  Ingersoll, 
from  Pennsylvania,  both  leaders,  though  on  opposite  sides  in 
politics,  Joseph  E.  being  a  whig  and  Jared  a  democrat.  The 
latter  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Affairs.  Then  a  little  to  the  rear  of  these  and  farther  to  the 
left  sat  Samuel  F.  Vinton,  of  Ohio,  whose  acquaintance  with 
the  rules,  great  prudence,  and  sound  judgment  rendered  him, 
perhaps,  the  most  prominent  leader  on  the  whig  side. 

Allow  me  here  to  digress  to  say  that  the  accomplished 
daughter  of  this  great  statesman,  Mrs.  Madeline  Vinton  Dahl- 
gren,  now  lives  in  the  city,  and  for  several  years  has  been 
the  center  of  a  literary  society  which  does  honor,  not  only  to 
the  metropolis,  but  to  the  whole  country,  and  from  whose  pen 
there  has  been  added  a  very  valuable  contribution  to  our 
political  literature  by  her  admirable  translation  from  the  French 
of  Adolphe  De  Chambrun's  treatise  on  the  "  Executive  power 
of  the  United  States." 

Just  to  the  right  of  Mr.  Vinton  and  a  little  farther  to  the 
left  of  the  Speaker  sat  another  whig  leader.  This  was  Garrett 
Davis,  of  Kentucky,  ever  active,  watchful,  and  vigilant. 

Th<5  head  of  the  Committee  on  Commerce  at  that  time  was 
Isaac  E.  Holmes,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina.  He  was  one 
of  the  most  pleasant  and  agreeable  men  of  the  House.  His 
colleague,  Hon.  E.  Barnwell  Ehett,  was  then  already  distin- 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF    GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  53 

guished  as  one  of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  House 
and  statesmen  of  the  country.  He  was  then  in  the  prime  of 
life  and  full  vigor  of  manhood.  He  had  been  here  for  several 
years,  and,  perhaps,  at  that  time  was  at  the  height  of  his  dis 
tinction.  His  seat  was  just  there  near  the  front. 

Among  the  whig  leaders  in  that  Congress  two  others  must 
be  mentioned.  One  was  Kenneth  Eayner,  of  North  Carolina, 
who  is  at  present  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury;  and  the  other 
was  John  P.  Kennedy,  of  Maryland,  the  biographer  of  Wirt. 
All  these  were  of  the  older  class  or  of  former  Congresses. 

With  me  in  the  Twenty-eighth  Congress  came  quite  a  shoal 
of  new  members,  many  of  whom  have  acted  important  parts 
in  the  history  of  the  country  since.  Of  these  standing  out 
most  prominently  in  my  memory  at  this  moment  are  HAN 
NIBAL  HAMLIN,  of  Maine,  since  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  and  now  Senator  in  the  other  wing  of  the  Capitol. 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  John  A.  McClernand,  of  Illinois,  the 
latter  of  whom  acted  a  very  conspicuous  part  in  the  late  war, 
and  presided  over  the  Saint  Louis  convention  of  1876,  while 
the  name  and  fame  of  Douglas  are  deeply  engraven  upon  the 
pages  of  our  country's  history.  Andrew  Johnson,  of  Ten 
nessee,  who  first  became  Vice-President  and  then  President 
of  the  United  States.  Alexander  Eamsey,  of  Pennsylvania, 
who  is  now  Secretary  of  War.  Hamilton  Fish,  of  New  York, 
who  for  eight  years  presided  with  so  much  ability  and  distinc 
tion  over  the  State  Department.  Eobert  C.  Schenck,  of  Ohio, 
who  has  since  served  his  country  in  many  high  positions,  and 
who  still  lives,  and  is  a  citizen  of  this  city.  Preston  King, 
of  New  York ;  John  Slidell,  of  Louisiana ;  John  P.  Hale,  of 
New  Hampshire ;  Eobert  McClelland,  of  Michigan ;  George  P. 
Marsh,  of  Vermont ;  George  W.  Jones,  of  Tennessee ;  Thomas 
L.  Clingman,  of  North  Carolina,  and  Ho  well  Cobb,  of  Georgia. 


54 


ADDRESS   OF  MR.   STEPHENS   ON   THE 


Robert  Toombs,  another  distinguished  Georgian,  who  has 
acted  a  great  part  since,  and  Jefferson  Davis,  of  Mississippi, 
and  William  L.  Yancey,  of  Alabama,  came  in  two  years  after. 
All  these  and  others  in  that  shoal  have  figured  extensively  in 
the  subsequent  history  of  our  country.  Most  of  them,  it  is 
true,  have  gone  to  their  long  homes — a  few  of  them  are  still 
surviving.  One  in  that  list,  not  yet  mentioned,  I  cannot  omit 
on  this  occasion.  I  refer  to  Felix  Grundy  McConnell,  of  Ala 
bama.  He  was  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  men  I  ever  met 
with.  Those  who  knew  him  can  never  forget  him.  He  was 
without  education,  but  with  talents  of  the  highest  order.  He 
was  the  original  author  and  mover  of  the  homestead  idea  in 
relation  to  the  public  lands.  He  was  cut  down  early  in  life, 
lamented  by  all. 

Now,  Mr.  Speaker,  a  glance  at  the  Senate  as  it  was  then 
composed :  There  was  George  Evans,  of  Maine ;  Levi  Wood- 
bury,  of  New  Hampshire ;  the  brilliant  and  eloquent  Choate, 
of  Massachusetts;  Silas  Wright,  of  New  York;  William  L. 
Dayton,  of  New  Jersey ;  James  Buchanan,  of  Pennsylvania ; 
William  C.  Eives  and  William  S.  Archer,  of  Virginia ;  Willie 
P.  Mangum,  of  North  Carolina;  George  McDuffie,  of  South 
Carolina;  John  M.  Berrien  and  Walter  T.  Colquitt,  of  Georgia; 
William  E.  King  and  Arthur  P.  Bagby,  of  Alabama ;  Eobert 
J.  Walker,  of  Mississippi ;  John  J.  Crittenden,  of  Kentucky ; 
William  Allen,  of  Ohio;  Thomas  H.  Benton  and  David  E. 
Atchison,  of  Missouri. 

These  were  all  giants  in  intellect  and  Titans  in  debate, 
although  neither  Calhoun.  Clay,  nor  Webster,  the  great  trio 
of  American  orators  and  statesmen,  was  then  in  that  body. 
Calhoun  was  in  voluntary  retirement,  and  was  soon  called  to 
the  State  Department.  Clay  had  left  the  Senate  the  year 
before  to  lead  the  whigs  in  the  presidential  canvass  of  1844. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  55 

Webster  had  just  left  Tyler's  cabinet,  after  the  ratification  of 
the  treaty  of  Washington,  which  was  his  masterpiece  of  diplo 
macy.  By  it  an  amicable  and  advantageous  settlement  was 
effected  on  the  long- vexed  question  of  the  northeastern  bound 
ary  between  the  United  States  and  the  British  Possessions. 
For  remaining  in  Tyler's  cabinet  to  accomplish  this  great  and 
patriotic  purpose  he  had  excited  the  opposition  of  his  party 
associates  throughout  the  country,'  and  had  especially  excited 
great  indignation  on  the  part  of  the  whigs  in  Massachusetts. 
This  was  a  memorable  epoch  in  his  life.  He  went  to  Boston 
to  defend  himself.  In  speaking  of  this  crisis  in  his  affairs,  I 
may  be  excused  on  this  occasion  in  quoting  what  Theodore 
Parker  said  of  Mr.  Webster  at  that  time : 

The  clouds  had  thickened  into  blackness,  all  around  and  over  him,  and 
hurled  their  thunders  fearfully  upon  his  devoted  head,  but  there  he  stood  in 
Faneuil  Hall  and  thundered  back  again.  It  was  the  ground  lightning  from 
his  Olympian  brain. 

Mr.  Webster's  contest  with  the  whigs  of  Massachusetts 
ended  with  his  again  being  returned  to  the  Senate  in  1845, 
where  he  again  met  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  where  they  both  again 
met  Mr.  Clay  in  1849. 

With  several  changes  in  the  personnel  before  stated,  the 
American  Senate  was  perhaps  at  this  period  the  most  august 
body  ever  before  assembled  in  this  country.  Cass  was  there. 
Hunter  was  there.  Seward  was  there.  Davis  and  Foote,  of 
Mississippi,  were  there.  Douglas  was  there.  It  was  by  this 
body  and  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  after  a  most  exciting 
and  protracted  debate  for  months,  that  the  great  sectional 
questions  were  peacefully  adjusted  in  1850,  under  the  lead  and 
auspices  mainly  of  Clay,  Webster,  Cass,  Foote,  and  Douglas. 
Mr.  Calhoun  died  while  the  debate  was  going  on. 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  can  indulge  in  these  reminiscences  no 


56  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   WRIGHT   ON  THE 

longer.  They  were  suggested  by  the  occasion.  From  what 
has  been  said  some  idea  can  be  formed  of  the  character  of  the 
men  with  whom  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  was  brought  in  contact 
through  his  eventful  life,  of  which  others  will  speak;  and 
therefore  the  more  correct  estimate  may  be  placed  upon  the 
merits  of  one  who,  under  the  circumstances,  achieved  the  dis 
tinction  he  did.  It  was  certainly  enough  to  gratify  the  highest 
ambition,  but  he,  if  I  understood  him,  had  no  ambition  but  to 
perform  his  duty,  and  in  its  faithful  discharge  to  render  him 
self  useful  to  his  fellow-men  in  his  day  and  generation.  Honor 
to  his  memory,  and  peace  to  his  ashes. 


Address  of  Mr.  WRIGHT,  of  Pennsylvania. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  it  was  a  great  many  years  ago  that  I  met  Mr. 
HOUSTON  in  public  life.  In  the  Thirty-third  Congress,  which 
is  nearly  a  third  of  a  century  since,  I  first  met  him.  We  then 
occupied  the  old  hall  of  the  Capitol.  The  foundations  of  this 
Chamber  had  not  been  laid  when  Mr.  HOUSTON  and  I  came 
into  this  legislative  body.  I  refer  back  through  that  long 
series  of  years  with  a  great  deal  of  satisfaction  in  the  remi 
niscences  that  I  make  now  and  then  of  the  old,  solid  men  who 
were  associated  with  me  in  the  legislation  of  that  period. 
When  we  met  here,  sir,  I  found  in  the  House  of  Eepresenta- 
tives  in  that  Thirty-third  Congress  such  men  as  Thomas  H. 
Benton,  ALEXANDER  H.  STEPHENS,  Thomas  H.  Bailey,  John 
Letcher,  George  W.  Jones,  John  C.  Breckinridge,  and  Thomas 
A.  Hendricks.  Contemporaneous  with  us  in  the  other  branch 
of  the  National  Legislature  there  were  Mr.  Everett,  Charles 
Sumner,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Lewis  Cass, 
William  H.  Seward,  E.  M.  T.  Hunter,  and  many  others 


LITE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  57 

that  I  might  name.  So  that  at  the  time  to  which  I  refer,  and 
when  I  first  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Governor  HOUSTON, 
there  were  not  only  eminent  men  in  this  House,  but  very  emi 
nent  men  in  the  co-ordinate  branch  of  Congress.  Even  amidst 
this  array  of  celebrated  men  Governor  HOUSTON,  although 
perhaps  he  might  not  rank  in  point  of  intellect  and  power 
with  some  of  the  men  whom  I  have  named,  at  that  time  in 
this  House  had  a  prominent  standing  and  an  exalted  position. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  which 
then  had  more  significance,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  than  it  has  now — 
I  do  not  speak  disparagingly  of  the  ability  of  the  gentlemen 
who  compose  it  now,  but  of  the  character  and  standing  that 
the  committee  under  the  rules  of  the  House  ought  to  have.  It 
was  a  proud  and  an  honored  position  to  be  held  among  the  dis 
tinguished  men  to  whom  I  have  referred.  But  a  few  years  be 
fore  this  time  the  Senate  presented  a  galaxy  of  intellectual 
power  that  has  never  been  exceeded  in  the  history  of  this 
country  or  of  any  other  in  the  world.  I  refer  to  the  days  when 
Mr.  Calhoun,  Mr.  Webster,  and  Mr.  Clay  occupied  positions 
in  the  Senate,  and  other  gentlemen  of  almost  equal  ability 
composed  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  The  time  I  speak 
of,  when  I  came  here,  these  distinguished  men  had  passed 
away. 

I  was  present  in  the  Senate  when  the  eulogies  were  pro 
nounced  on  Mr.  Clay,  and  they  made  a  great  impression 
upon  me.  Men  in  those  days  could  listen  to  eulogies  on  their 
dead  colleagues  and  not  employ  themselves  in  conversing  or 
making  disorder  in  the  galleries.  It  would  seem  to  be  in  bet 
ter  taste  now  to  follow  the  example. 

Governor  HOUSTON  I  met  for  the  last  time  previous  to  my 
leaving  for  my  home  during  the  holidays.  He  then  appeared 
to  be  in  good  ordinary  health,  but  the  insidious  enemy  was 


8  H 


58  ADDRESS   OF  ME.   WEIGHT   ON  THE 

upon  his  track — the  enemy  that  is  upon  the  track  of  all  of  us, 
and  when  and  -  where  he  shall  come  is  unknown  to  any  of  us. 
There  are  some  things,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  we  do  know : 

We  know  that  moons  shall  wane, 

And  summer  birds  from  far  shall  cross  the  sea ; 

But  who  shall  tell  us  when  to  look  for  death? 

Ah,  Mr.  Speaker, 

He  has  all  seasons  for  his  own. 

Governor  HOUSTON  was  my  junior  by  some  three  years,  and 
in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature  I  should  have  preceded  him 
upon  the  journey  to  that  goal  in  the  distance  that  is  so  little 
known  to  us  all,  but  which  sooner  or  latter  it  is  part  of  our  -des 
tiny  to  make.  In  my  associations  with  Governor  HOUSTON  I 
found  him  not  what  the  world  might  call  a  great  man,  but  bet 
ter  than  that,  Mr.  Speaker,  I  found  him  to  be  an  honest  man 
and  a  good  man,  and  greatness  without  these  additional  quali 
fications  amounts  to  literally  nothing  in  making  up  and  form 
ing  the  true  standard  of  human  character.  Greatness  without 
those  essential  qualities  of  the  mind  and  heart,  kindness,  good 
ness,  charity,  honesty,  is  sadly  robbed  of  its  exalted  status. 

There  are  arbitrary  terms  we  use  in  speaking  of  the  attri 
butes  of  human  character.  There  are  terms  which  we  use  in 
forming  our  opinion  and  estimate  of  the  human  mind,  and  I 
have  lived  to  a  long  period  and  have  mingled  with  a  great 
many  men,  but  in  forming  my  opinion  of  what  I  regard  as  the 
character  of  a  great  man  I  want  something  else  than  genius  as 
the  sole  qualification  of  a  statesman,  a  warrior,  or 'a  distin 
guished  jurist.  I  want  greatness  to  go  beyond  that  point.  I 
want  a  man  great  in  the  noble  qualities  which  distinguish  our 
race;  not 

Great  like  Cfesar  stained  in  blood, 
But  only  great  as  we  are  good. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.  HOUSTON. 


59 


So  I  classify  my  distinguished  friend  now  deceased,  the 
friend  of  my  early  days,  a  man  whose  kind,  generous  heart 
endeared  him  to  me ;  a  man  without  guile. 

I  heard  it  said  here,  in  these  opening  eulogies,  on  the  part 
of  the  gentleman  from  Alabama  [Mr.  FORNEY],  that  during  the 
long  period  of  Governor  HOUSTON'S  life  no  charge  had  ever 
been  brought  home  to  him  of  dishonesty,  either  in  public  or 
private  life.  Heavens !  That  is  the  reputation  that  makes  a 
man  great.  Nearly  a  third  of  a  century  in  Congress,  and  no 
charge  of  malfeasance  made  against  him.  The  voice  of  slan 
der  even  hushed ;  that  forked  tongue  which  throws  its  venom 
against  the  good,  the  honest,  the  prudent — in  short,  against 
many  men  of  pure  principles  and  upright  life.  How  should  he 
have  escaped? 

If  there  be  any  one  thing  dearer  to  me  than  another  in  form 
ing  the  estimate  of  the  true  character  of  my  friend,  let  it  be  said 
that  he  hais  been  of  some  service  to  his  fellow-creatures,  and 
possessing  those  elements  of  greatness  that  lead  him  to  the 
giving  of  relief  to  others.  That  is  true  greatness.  I  do  not 
detract  from  the  reputation  of  those  who  have  won  their  spurs 
upon  the  battle-field ;  I  do  not  detract  from  the  reputation  of 
those  who  have  led  senates  and  in  that  sphere  obtained  a  great 
and  renewed  reputation ;  I  do  not  detract  from  those  who  have 
been  renowned  in  the  administration  of  the  laws  of  the  land. 
They  have  gained  their  laurels;  let  them  wear  them.  But  I 
hold  in  higher  regard  the  reputation  of  those  who  have  not 
reached  such  exalted  positions,  but  who  have  excelled  in  all 
the  great  qualifications  that  adorn  the  human  heart  and  place 
the  crown  upon  the  human  head.  I  want  such  qualifications 
to  be  considered  a  part  and  parcel  of  those  who  in  these  days 
constitute  greatness — not  greatness  in  one  thing,  but  great 
ness  in  all  things. 


60  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   WRIGHT   ON   THE 

We  have  before  us  to-day  the  history  of  a  man  who  has 
passed  a  score  of  years  in  public  life  and  whose  reputation 
for  honesty  and  integrity  has  grown  brighter  and  brighter, 
though  there  have  been  occasions  when  temptations  have 
been  great,  in  the  way  of  virtuous  life.  Such  are  the  tradi 
tions  of  times  past.  He  maintained  unsullied  his  reputation, 
and  even  to  the  end  of  his  career  he  is  the  same  kind,  gen 
erous,  and  upright  man ;  his  eye  constantly  on  his  duties  here, 
fighting  for  a  frugal  administration  of  the  government,  he  has 
won  no  enemies  and  made  all  his  friends.  That,  Mr.  Speaker, 
is  greatness  according  to  my  conception  of  the  word. 

So  he  pursued  his  onward  way,  beloved  by  all,  liked  by  all, 
despised  by  none.  Peacefully  and  quietly  he  goes  down  to 
his  grave  when  no  voice  can  be  raised  against  him  or  any  of 
the  transactions  of  his  life.  Sir,  it  gives  me  pleasure  to  stand 
up  here  before  this  House  and  before  the  nation  and  record 
in  strong  language  my  admiration  and  my  approval  of  a  man 
so  distinguished  through  so  long  a  period  of  public  life. 
Hushed  is  the  voice  of  defamation.  He  is  beyond  the  reach 
of  calumny,  because  none  are  so  daring  as  to  cast  the  impu 
tation. 

I  felt  it  my  duty  to  say  this  much  in  memory  of  an  old  and 
highly-esteemed  friend.  I  should  perhaps,  in  justice  to  his 
memory,  have  reduced  my  thoughts  to  paper  and  have  pre 
sented  them  in  a  more  condensed  and  appropriate  way.  My 
time  was  too  much  occupied ;  but,  preferring  to  say  something, 
I  trusted  to  the  inspiration  of  the  occasion.  What  I  have 
said  was  from  the  impulse  of  the  moment,  and  perhaps  better 
conceived  and  better  said  th:m  if  I  had  sat  in  my  closet  for  a 
week  preparing  a  eulogy.  God  bless  the  memory  of  GEORGKE 
S.  HOUSTON. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  01 


Address  of  Mr.  WOOD,  of  New  York. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  I  cannot  let  this  melancholy  occasion  pass 
without  adding  a  word  in  commemoration  of  the  distinguished 
deceased.  Although  L  did  not  know  him  as  well  by  personal 
association  as  others,  I  think  none  now  in  congressional  life 
knew  him  so  early  and  so  long.  I  met  him  first  as  an  asso 
ciate  member  of  the  Twenty-seventh  Congress,  in  the  month 
of  May,  1841,  which  is  now  nearly  thirty -nine  years  ago.  He 
was  a  leading  man  at  that  time,  in  a  Congress  distinguished 
for  the  presence  in  this  body  of  John  Qumcy  Adams,  Millard 
Fillmore,  Henry  A.  Wise,  Robert  C.  Winthrop,  E.  M.  T.  Hun 
ter,  and  others,  foremost  in  the  annals  of  American  legisla 
tion,  while  in  the  Senate  were  John  C.  Calhoun,  Henry  Clay, 
Daniel  Webster,  Thomas  H.  Benton,  Silas  Wright,  and  others, 
whose  fame  and  names  stand  in  history  as  among  the  first  of 
modern  statesmen.  To  have  been  a  noticeable  man  among 
such  men  was  of  itself  sufficient  to  entitle  one  to  a  claim  for 
eminence. 

And  such  a  man  was  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.  He  possessed 
a  clear,  calm,  and  solid  intellectual  force.  Without  ornament 
or  effort  for  display  in  debate,  he  was  always  intelligent  and 
instructive.  I  well  remember  him  at  that  time  as  a  kind  gen 
tleman,  obliging  to  the  younger  members,  and  always  of  serv 
ice  in  enabling  us  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  the  practice  of 
the  House.  He  has  gone !  He  has  but  followed  to  the  grave 
nearly  every  member  of  that  Congress.  The  places  that  knew 
them  then  in  these  halls  "shall  know  them  no  more  forever." 
One  by  one  have  those  who  figured  so  conspicuously  in  the 
debates  upon  this  floor,  and  who  led  their  followers  in  forensic 
struggles,  one  by  one  have  they  gone  down  amid  all  their 
honors  to  the  last  sad  resting-place  of  departed  glory.  Sir, 


62  ADDRESS   OF  ME.   HAEEIS   ON  THE 

when  I  look  around  upon  my  associates  now  and  remember 
those  to  whom  I  held  the  same  relations  then,  I  am  more  than 
impressed  with  the  stern  realities  of  time  and  the  inexorable 
demands  of  nature. 

Not  one  of  the  men  with  whom  I  served  in  the  Twenty-sev 
enth  Congress  is  here  now,  and  but  few — ay,  indeed,  but 
eight  or  ten  out  of  the  three  hundred  members  of  both  Houses 
— are  living.  Gone  forever! 

When  these  thoughts  force  themselves  upon  me  and  I  am 
brought  face  to  face  with  this  melancholy  fact,  when  1  look 
upon  these  seats  and  fail  to  find  one,  not  one,  of  my  early 
associates  in  Congress,  it  looks  cheerless  and  dark.  Sad 
thoughts  are  forced  upon  me,  and  the  narrow  and  growing 
narrower  period  of  my  own  continuance  is  made  more  evident 
and  more  positive. 

I  feel  like  one  who  treads  alone 

Some  banquet-hall  deserted; 
Whose  lights  are  fled,  whose  garlands  dead, 

And  all  but  he  departed. 


Address  of  Mr.  HARRIS,  of  Virginia. 

Mr.  SPEAKEE,  for  the  last  twenty  years  I  was  honored 
with  the  friendship  of  the  gentleman  whose  death  the  country 
now  mourns,  and  who  served  it  so  faithfully  in  varied  and 
highly  responsible  positions.  From  intimate  knowledge  of 
his  character,  his  proper  meed  of  praise  must  emanate  from 
an  abler  source  than  mine.  Our  friendship  began  as  members 
of  this  body  during  that  trying  epoch  in  the  history  of  na 
tions — the  Thirty-sixth  Congress — embracing  the  year  1860 
to  1861.  During  that  stormy  period  his  counsel  and  his  votes 
were  always  in  the  interest  of  peace  and  for  the  perpetuity 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  63 

of  the  Union.  His  thoughtful  mind  comprehended  the  perils 
of  the  times.  He  saw  the  storm  in  the  near  future  and  bent 
all  the  energies  of  his  ardent  and  patriotic  nature  to  avert  it. 

Since  his  entry  upon  the  stage  of  public  action  so  many 
changes  have  swept  across  the  face  of  society  that  his  reten 
tion  of  confidence  and  support  has  but  seldom  been  paralleled 
in  our  political  history.  For  over  twenty  years  before  I  made 
his  acquaintance  or  was  honored  with  his  friendship  his  people 
had  intrusted  him  with  high  and  responsible  duties.  When 
his  career  began  the  country  was  comparatively  in  its  infancy, 
struggling  with  the  ill-concealed  hostility  of  the  great  and  des 
potic  states  of  the  Old  World.  When  it  needed  the  fostering 
care  of  brave  hearts  and  great  minds  he  was  one  of  its  stanch  - 
est  supporters  and  ablest  advocates  and  defenders.  When 
death  sought  and  conquered  himt  he  feeble  Government  of  his 
early  career  had  grown  to  gigantic  proportions;  a  thousand 
varied  and  conflicting  interests  had  subjected  our  institutions 
to  the  strains  that  follow  far-reaching  territory  and  large  popu 
lations — had  changed  us  from  a  people  who  then  subordinated 
everything  to  love  of  country  to  a  people  whose  national  inter 
ests  compelled  each  locality  to  contend  for  the  maintenance  of 
an  equal  balance  of  the  favors  and  the  protection  governments 
afford. 

A  period  intermediate  between  his  entry  into  public  life  and 
his  death  represented  one  of  the  darkest  eras  in  human  history ; 
when  our  unhappy  country  was  torn  by  civil  conflict  the  like 
of  which  perhaps  has  never  been  witnessed  since  the  morning 
of  creation;  when  brother  was  arrayed  against  brother  in  deadly 
strife  and  all  our  rivers  ran  red  with  the  blood  of  the  bravest 
and  the  best  of  our  sons — as  a  result  of  which  institutions  that 
had  given  shape  and  characteristics  to  the  society  that  had 
always  honored  him  were  swept  from  existence  by  a  decree  as 


64  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   HARRIS   ON  THE 

eternal  as  the  mountains,  and  a  new  order  of  things  shaped 
from  political  chaos  was  to  be  wrought  out  for  the  salvation 
of  his  people. 

His  was  the  hand  to  which  his  neighbors  intrusted  the- helm. 
That  he  faithfully  and  successfully  fulfilled  this  high  mission 
is  now  recorded  in  public  history.  His  epitaph  is  written  in 
the  praises  of  a  redeemed,  a  great,  and  a  free  State.  His  judg 
ment  was  so  tempered  by  sound  philosophy  that  no  sentiment 
ever  escaped  his  lips  during  his  whole  career  that  could  affect 
the  nicest  sectional  susceptibilities.  While  loving  the  State 
that  had  fostered  and  trusted  him  in  his  youth  and  sustained 
him  in  his  manhood,  he  was  as  broad  as  his  country  and  as  just 
as  Aristides.  His  counsels  during  the  short  period  he  served 
in  the  Senate  tended  always  to  the  promotion  of  peace  among 
all  our  people,  and  his  ambition  was  that  the  institutions 
handed  down  by  our  fathers  should  be  perpetuated  here  to  so 
elevate  mankind  that  by  force  of  example  empires  and  k'ing- 
doms  would  crumble  to  dust,  and  that  the  people  should  be  the 
masters  of  their  own  destiny  throughout  the  world. 

Such  men  always  die  too  young;  but  their  example  lives 
after  them,  and  so  molds  and  shapes  coming  events  that  the 
order  of  affairs  is  tending  ever  to  a  higher  and  a  more  just 
public  control,  is  tending  ever  in  a  republican  government 
against  turbulence  and  bloodshed;  is  carving  a  pathway 
through  the  darkness  of  the  past  to  a  brighter,  more  hopeful, 
and  peaceful  future.  In  losing  the  dead  Senator  the  Union 
has  lost  an  able  defender,  every  honest  and  good  man  an 
admirer,  and  myself  one  of  the  best  of  friends  and  the  safest 
of  advisers.  To  those  more  nearly  allied  to  him  the  solace  is 
that  his  spirit  is  with  his  and  their  kindred  in  the  presence  of 
the  Most  High;  that  the  purity  and  justice  of  his  life  assure 
him  a  blessed  immortality. 


LIFE   AND  /fefPATEACTEB   OF  GEOROE   S.   HOUSTON.  65 


Address  of  Mr.  HOUSE,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  the  career  of  the  politician  and  statesman  in 
this  country  is  beset  with  as  many  difficulties  and  burdened 
with  as  many  cares  as  man  is  called  to  meet  on  any  other  path 
of  life  which  duty  or  ambition  may  prompt  him  to  travel.  To 
the  young  and  aspiring,  fancy  invests  no  place  with  more  fasci 
nating  attractions  than  that  of  high  political  position.  In  a 
land  where  the  very  highest  office  under  the  Government  is 
open  to  the  obscurest  boy,  and  where  the  very  humblest  have 
reached  the  exalted  position,  it  could  not  be  otherwise  than 
that  the  avenues  to  political  preferment  should  be  crowded 
with  eager  aspirants.  But  along  the  track  of  political  conflict . 
how  many  hopes  have  been  wrecked  and  how  many  dreams 
have  perished !  And  even  among  those  who  reach  the  goal  of 
their  ambition,  how  many  feel  in  the  very  hour  of  their  success 
that  they  have  but  imitated  the  ardent  boy  that  chases  the 
gay  butterfly  only  to  find  it,  when  caught,  turn  to  gilded  dust 
upon  his  fingers.  The  man  of  the  people  treads  no  flowery 
path.  He  lives  and  moves  in  the  glare  of  public  observation, 
his  motives  often  impugned,  his  private  character  perhaps 
criticised  «and  assailed,  his  course  always  open  to  the  animad 
version  of1  political  foes  and  watched  with  unfriendly  scrutiny, 
it  may  be,  even  by  political  friends,  with  the  hope  of  detecting 
some  fault  or  mistake  in  his  public  service  which  may  forfeit 
the  support  of  his  constituents  and  cause  them  to  retire  him  in 
favor  of  some  more  fortunate  rival.  His  whole  career  is  often 
an  animated  struggle  for  political  existence,  in  which  he  is  ex 
posed  at  the  same  time  to  a  fire  in  front  and  rear.  Even  if  vic 
torious  in  the  unequal  conflict,  he  frequently  receives  wounds 
that  follow  him  to  the  grave. 

His  private  character  is  too  often  considered  public  property, 


9  H 


66  ADDRESS  OF  ME.  HOUSE   ON  THE 

which  the  irresponsible  scribbler  feels  himself  licensed  to  deal 
with  as  he  would  partake  of  a  free  lunch  or  speak  of  the 
weather.  In  the  partisan  struggles  of  this  country  there  has 
always  been  too  little  regard  paid  to  personal  reputation.  It 
has  been  too  much  the  custom  to  regard  everything  fair  in  poli 
tics,  as  in  war,  and  to  treat  a  political  adversary  as  an  outlaw 
against  whom  it  is  legitimate  to  use  even  poisoned  weapons  of 
warfare.  There  are  too  many  leading  journals  that  do  not  hes 
itate  to  publish  any  rumor  against  a  political  adversary  which 
will  create  a  sensation  or  score  a  point  against  the  opposite 
party.  The  rumor  may  be  wholly  unfounded  j  its  publication 
may  blast  a  human  life  and  plant  a  thorn  that  will  rankle  in 
innocent  hearts  until  they  cease  to  beat  j  but  the  newspaper 
has  enjoyed  the  profit  of  a  sensation  and  the  pleasure  of  befoul 
ing  the  reputation  of  a  political  opponent.  'Tis  but  a  poor 
recompense  to  a  man  thus  injured  and  slandered,  and  to  his 
suffering  family,  to  be  told  by  the  newspaper  that  has  voiced 
the  scandal  to  its  thousands  of  readers  that  he  can  have  the 
use  of  its  columns  to  refute  the  calumny.  Equipped  in  its 
seven-league  boots  the  falsehood  sets  out  on  its  journey  and 
laughs  to  scorn  all  the  efforts  that  truth  can  make  to  overtake 
and  disarm  it. 

The  press  of  the  country  should  lift  itself  above  the  level  of 
the  common  tale-bearer  and  scandal-monger.  Neither  the  race 
of  diligence  in  giving  news  to  the  public,  nor  a  desire  to  win 
a  character  for  enterprise,  nor  an  effort  to  promote  the  fortunes 
of  a  political  party  should  cause  our  public  journals  to  wield 
the  immense  power  they  possess  to  destroy  private  character. 
No  meritorious  cause  is  subserved  by  unjust  and  libelous 
attacks  on  individual  reputation.  No  man  who  occupies  a  pub 
lic  position  can  claim  to  be  exempt  from  criticism.  His  public 
acts  are  public  property,  and  he  has  no  right  to  complain  if 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  67 

they  are  censured  or  condemned.  But  every  man,  as  long  as 
he  conducts  himself  as  a  gentleman,  has  a  right  to  expect  and 
demand  that  his  private  character  shall  be  free  from  the 
assaults  of  falsehood  and  calumny.  But  how  many  of  our 
distinguished  public  men  have  enjoyed  this  immunity  while 
battling  with  the  elements  of  party  strife  and  climbing  to  the 
mountain  ranges  of  political  ambition  ?  But  however  unhappy 
the  life  of  a  public  man  may  be  made  by  this  uncivilized  mode 
of  warfare,  he  may  always  console  himself  with  the  reflection 
that  the  people  are  neither  unjust  nor  ungenerous  to  a  faithful 
public  servant.  If  he  is  true  to  his  trust,  true  to  himself,  and 
true  to  his  constituents,  they  will  neither  withdraw  their  confi 
dence  from  him  nor  suffer  his  name  to  be  cast  out  as  evil. 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  the  distinguished  subject  of 
these  memorial  services  to  spend  a  great  portion  of  his  man 
hood  upon  the  stormy  theater  of  political  life.  He  met  its 
perils,  faced  its  antagonisms,  bore  its  criticisms,  engaged  in  its 
conflicts,  and  retired  from  the  long-fought  and  well- fought  field 
with  no  stain  on  his  name  and  no  reproach  ou  his  memory. 
More  fortunate  than  many  others,  the  tongue  of  slander  never 
assailed  his  honor  or  impeached  his  reputation  even  in  the 
fierce  and  bitter  struggles  of  partisan  warfare.  He  was  born 
in  Williamson  County,  Tennessee,  in  the  year  1809.  When  he 
was  only  twelve  years  of  age  his  parents  removed  to  the  State 
of  Alabama.  As  Tennessee  gave  him  to  Alabama,  it  is  not 
inappropriate  that  the  voice  of  the  mother  should  mingle  in 
the  solemn  ceremonies  in  honor  of  his  memory  and  feel  a  por 
tion  of  the  pride  with  which  his  adopted  State  must  ever  cher 
ish  his  fame.  At  the  early  age  of  twenty-three  years  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Legislature,  the  year  after  he  was 
licensed  to  practice  law. 

In  1834  he  removed  to  Limestone  County,  Alabama,  to  prac- 


68  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   HOUSE   ON  THE 

tice  his  profession.  In  1837  he  was  elected  solicitor  of  his  dis 
trict,  which  position  he  continued  to  hold  until  he  was  elected 
to  Congress  in  1841 .  He  served  his  district  in  Congress  for 
eighteeu  years,  with  an  interval  of  only  one  term,  when  he  vol 
untarily  declined  to  be  a  candidate.  Though  often  opposed  by 
men  of  ability  in  his  district,  and  engaging  in  warm  and  ani 
mated  contests,  he  was  never  defeated  before  the  people.  His 
congressional  career  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  country. 
He  was  for  several  terms  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means,  at  a  time  when  that  leading  committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  addition  to  its  other  important 
and  onerous  duties,  was  charged  with  the  responsibility  of 
preparing  the  appropriation  bills.  His  distinguished  services 
at  the  head  of  this  committee  of  the  House,  which  numbered 
among  its  members  at  that  time  many  eminent  men,  stamps 
him  as  a  man  of  no  ordinary  attainments  and  ability.  It  may 
be  safely  said  that  no  man  at  that  time  exerted  a  greater  in 
fluence  over  the  legislation  of  the  House  than  GEORGE  S. 
HOUSTON.  He  may  not  have  possessed,  in  as  high  a  degree 
as  some  others,  those  dazzling  and  brilliant  qualities  which 
readily  captivate  the  public  mind,  but  in  soundness  of  judg 
ment,  in  political  wisdom,  in  thorough  comprehension  of  the 
subjects  of  legislation,  in  strength  of  will,  firmness  of  pur 
pose,  indomitable  energy,  and  patient,  laborious,  and  conscien 
tious  discharge  of  duty,  he  stood,  and  deserved  to  stand,  in 
the  front  rank. 

He  may  not  have  had  what  is  popularly  called  genius,  what 
ever  that  is,  but  he  had  in  an  eminent  degree  what  Buffon,  the 
great  naturalist,  denominated  genius — patience.  His  long  and 
useful  career  in  the  national  councils  is  a  monument  to  his 
ability  as  a  statesman  and  his  integrity  as  a  man.  When  his 
State  determined  to  withdraw  from  the  Union,  he  resigned  his 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GKEO11GE   S.   HOUSTON.  69 

position  as  a  member  of  this  House,  and  went  home  to  share 
the  fortunes,  good  or  ill,  of  the  people  who  had  honored  and 
trusted  him,  although  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1860  he 
had  opposed  secession  and  supported  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for 
President.  I  care  not  to  pause  or  comment  upon  the  course  he 
saw  fit  to  take  in  this  great  and  trying  emergency  when  Ala 
bama  decided  to  sever  her  connection  with  the  national  Union. 
Suffice  it  to  say,  he  was  incapable  of  taking  any  step  which  to 
him  did  not  seem  dictated  by  duty  and  sanctioned  by  honor. 
I  leave  his  action  and  his  motives,  together  with  the  actions 
and  motives  of  others,  who,  under  like  circumstances,  pursued 
a  similar  course,  to  the  calm  judgment  of  just  men,  whose 
applause  or  censure  is  alone  worthy  of  being  prized  or  depre 
cated. 

Soon  after  the  war  Mr.  HOUSTON  was  elected  to  the  United 
States  Senate  from  Alabama,  but  was  not  allowed  to  take  the 
seat  to  which  he  was  elected.  Though  deprived  of  the  honor 
of  representing  his  State  in  the  Senate,  there  was  one  thing  of 
which  those  who  denied  him  his  seat  could  not  deprive  him, 
and  that  was  the  consciousness  that  Alabama  considered  him 
worthy  of  the  high  honor  and  conferred  it  upon  him.  In  1874 
he  was  elected  governor,  and  was  again  elected  to  the  same 
position  in  1876.  During  his  term  of  service  as  governor,  the 
difficult  problem  of  a  State  debt,  with  which  so  many  of  the 
wasted  States  of  the  South  had  to  struggle  since  the  war,  came 
up  for  solution.  I  remember  to  have  had  a  conversation  with 
Governor  HOUSTON  on  the  subject  of  the  debt  of  his  State. 
Every  instinct  and  impulse  of  his  nature  rose  in  rebellion  at 
the  idea  that  Alabama  should  incur  the  odium  of  repudiation. 
Under  his  wise,  patriotic,  and  judicious  guidance  the  debt  was 
adjusted  upon  terms  satisfactory  to  the  State  and  her  creditors 
and  honorable  to  both.  He  led  Alabama  through  this  ordeal 


70  ADDRESS   OF   MR.   HOUSE   ON   THE 

safely,  and  had  the  proud  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  State  he 
loved  so  well  and  for  which  he  had  labored  so  faithfully  stand 
without  a  stain  upon  her  escutcheon  or  a  cloud  upon  her  title 
to  honorable  recognition  among  her  sister  Commonwealths. 

As  honorable,  faithful,  and  distinguished  as  were  his  services 
in  the  national  councils  before  the  war,  his  labors  and  influence 
after  the  great  struggle  had  closed,  in  readjusting  Alabama  to 
the  new  order  of  things  and  the  changed  condition  of  affairs 
must  ever  form  the  brightest  chapter  in  the  history  of  his  long 
and  successful  public  life.  The  services  and  counsels  of  such 
a  man  at  such  a  time  cannot  be  well  overestimated.  The  State 
acknowledged  and  appreciated  his  services  in  her  behalf.  At 
the  close  of  his  gubernatorial  term  he  was  again  elected  to  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States,  and  took  his  seat  in  that  body  on 
the  4th  day  of  March,  1879.  But  he  was  not  long  permitted  to 
wear  this  crowning  honor  of  his  people  and  his  State.  On  the 
31st  of  December,  1879,  the  venerable  statesman  was  gathered 
to  his  fathers.  He  was  followed  to  the  grave  by  the  people 
whose  trust  he  had  never  betrayed,  whose  honor  he  had  never 
compromised,  whose  cause  he  had  never  deserted,  and  whose 
confidence  and  affection  he  had  proudly  worn  as  his  crown  of 
glory.  Surely,  if  anything  can  adequately  compensate  a  man 
for  passing  through  the  strife  and  turmoil  and  bitterness  and 
unrest  of  political  life,  Senator  HOUSTON  had  cause  to  be  con 
tent  with  his  lot.  He  now  sleeps  beyond  the  reach  of  praise  or 
censure,  but  his  fame  is  in  the  custody  of  those  who  will  guard 
it  well.  When,  in  the  coming  years,  Alabama,  like  another  Old 
Mortality,  shall  make  her  solemn  rounds  to  rechisel  the  fading- 
names  of  her  distinguished  dead  upon  the  marble  that  guards 
their  sleeping  dust,  she  will  pause  at  the  grave  of  GEORGE  S. 
HOUSTON, 

To  bless  the  turf  that  wraps  his  clay. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.     71 

Upon  her  roll  of  honor  she  will  point  to  the  name  of  no  other 
son  with  fonder  pride ;  for  no  other  son  of  hers  has  ever  given 
her  greater  cause  to  cherish  his  memory  and  to  revere  his  name. 


Address  of  Mr.  Cox,  of  New  York. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  one  of  the  compensations  for  death  is  the  be 
lief  that,  when  it  comes,  the  errors  of  our  life  will  be  buried 
with  the  mortal  body,  and  the  eccentricities  of  our  human 
nature  be  rounded  into  a  shining  orbit  of  charity.  Who  would 
speak  of  the  dead  save  in  the  phrases  of  loving  kindness? 
Barely  have  I  felt  that  a  word  of  mine  in  their  eulogy  could  do 
adequate  justice  to  the  merits  of  deceased  friends.  But  when 
manly  men,  like  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Michael  C.  Kerr,  and 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  fall  here  in  the  sphere  of  duty,  and  when 
their  characters  present  so  much  to  praise,  I  have  overcome  my 
reluctance  and  entered  upon  the  threshold  of  the  unseen  world 
with  the  unreserve  of  enthusiasm. 

If  excuse  were  needed  for  taking  part  in  this  ceremony,  is  it 
not  enough  that  I  knew  Governor  HOUSTON  during  a  part  of 
his  early  service  here  more  than  a  score  of  years  ago  ?  I  knew 
him,  to  respect  his  talents  and  love  his  character.  His  kind 
ness  to  young  members  was  remarked  by  my  colleague,  and 
this  is  why  my  recollection  of  him  is  embalmed  so  sweetly  now. 
Indeed,  as  early  as  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress,  in  1854,  I  had 
remarked  him  towering  as  a  conspicuous  figure  in  yonder  old 
hall,  commanding  the  attention  and  consummating  the  work  of 
this  House.  In  the  Thirty-fifth  and  Thirty-sixth  Congresses 
we  sat  together  upon  this  side  of  the  Chamber.  Here  his  prac 
tical  mind  and  generous  qualities  gave  him  pre  eminence.  He 
was  prominent  in  debate,  not  merely  because  of  his  readiness 


72  ADDRESS  OF  MR.   COX  ON  THE 

and  fullness  in  details  and  his  knowledge  of  parliamentary 
methods,  but  for  his  large  views  and  patriotic  sentiments. 

That  he  was  thus  accoutered  for  duty  was  owing  to  his  great 
experience  in  public  affairs,  his  influence  among  men,  his  cour 
ageous  and  charitable  opinions  of  his  fellows,  and  -his  ready 
familiarity  with  the  structure  and  essence  of  our  Government 
and  its  complicated  and  refined  polity.  This  experience  was 
gained  by  close  attention  to  his  duties  in  every  province  where 
he  was  called,  and  to  the  maturity  and  reliability  of  his  judg 
ment,  and  to  his  prophetic  insight  into  the  needs  of  his  Com 
monwealth  and  the  country. 

Forty  years  ago  he  lifted  his  voice,  here  for  frugality  and 
honesty.  As  chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  he  allowed  no 
prodigality  to  give  meretricious  splendor  to  the  Federal  sys 
tem.  To  him  squandering  was  almost  crime.  I  never  recall 
his  services  in  those  Congresses  before  the  war  that  I  do  not 
associate  with  him  two  other  statesmen,  George  W.  Jones,  of 
Tennessee,  and  John  Letcher,  of  Virginia,  whose  aims  and 
efforts  should  be  forever  a  living  pattern. 

His  first  elaborate  effort  in  the  Twenty-seventh  Congress  was 
for  the  restraint  of  legislation  here  within  the  narrowest  limits 
and  against  implied  powers.  He  would  leave  all  legislation  to 
the  States  "over  subjects  where  they  could  as  amply  and  bene 
ficially  legislate  as  Congress."  This  was  the  key-note  of  all  his 
service.  As  early  as  1842  he  ably  contested  the  power  of  Con 
gress  over  elections,  holding  them  to  be  aloof  from  Federal 
supervision.  He  was  not  only  a  strict  economist,  but  jealous 
and  denunciatory  of  the  Senate  on  money  bills.  That  body,  he 
thought,  should  defer  to  the  -House,  the  immediate  representa 
tives  of  the  people,  but  if  they  did  not,  he  was  for  appealing 
to  the  people. 

He  was  a  bold  denouncer  of  tariff  tyranny,  as  his  speech  in 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  73 

1844  shows.  His  wisdom  as  to  the  public  lands  was  often 
evinced  in  the  early  period  of  his  service,  for  he  held  our  lands 
to  be  a  trust  for  the  people,  and  not  for  speculative  greed. 

During  these  years,  Texas  annexation  and  the  Oregon  bound 
ary  were  leading  themes.  I  need  not  say  upon  which  side  this 
courageous  statesman  stood.  His  Oregon  speech,  and  indeed 
all  of  his  elaborate  speeches,  are  remarkable  for  exhaustive  re 
search,  perspicuity,  defiance,  and  patriotism.  Perhaps  the  best 
element  of  his  character  was  his  fearlessness  and  self-abnega 
tion.  In  a  speech  against  the  general  internal  improvement 
system,  on  the  26th  of  May,  1846,  he  avowed  his  opposition  to 
the  appropriation  for  his  own  Tennessee  Eiver,  and  especially 
when  associated  with  streams  less  consequential.  Though  the 
river  ran  between  States  and  through  States — navigable  but 
for  obstructions  for  eight  hundred  miles,  washing  seven  of  the 
leading  agricultural  and  planting  States,  and  a  link  between 
the  Atlantic,  the  West,  and  the  Gulf — still  he  would  not  coun 
tenance  the  system  which  took  unequally  from  one  portion  of 
the  country  to  give  to  another.  He  would  have  equal  exac 
tions  and  equal  favors  or  none.  He  thus  defied  the  wishes  of 
his  people,  exclaiming :  "I  value  too  highly  the  little  character 
I  have  earned  in  the  public  service  to  forfeit  it  for  office  or  by 
corrupt  bargains." 

This  independence  was  rewarded,  for  his  constituents  saw  in 
it  the  best  type  of  a  trustworthy  representative. 

Whether  in  scrutinizing  the  expenses  of  our  Army  and  re 
quiring  accountability  for  the  least  item,  or  arguing  against 
subsidies  to  the  Collins  steamers  as  fraught  with  partiality 
and  unjust  to  fair  and  free  trade;  whether  defending  the 
privileges  of  the  House  or  vindicating  the  supremacy  of  the 
treaty-making  power,  he  brought  to  the  debate  pithy  sen 
tences  and  linked  logic,  now  and  then  relieved  by  flashes  of 


10  H 


74  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   COX  ON  THE 

facetiae  and  all  subordinated  to  a  sense  of  honor,  justice,  and 
patriotism. 

When,  on  the  16th  of  February,  1853,  his  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means  and  that  Congress  were  criticised  as  not  being  com 
parable  to  earlier  committees  and  Congresses,  he  defended  their 
assiduity  and  economy,  and,  rising  into  an  eloquent  panegyric 
of  the  great  and  good  men  who  once  adorned  the  House,  and 
referring  to  the  mutations  which  time  had  wrought,  he  softened 
acrimony  into  praise,  by  saying : 

Truly,  Mr.  Chairman,  changes  have  taken  place.  In  that  the  gentleman 
and  myself  are  perfectly  agreed.  But,  sir,  changes  are  inevitable,  and  it  is 
not  for  us  to  complain  of  the  decrees  of  fate  or  of  evils  over  which  we  have 
no  control.  We  must  make  the  best  we  can  of  our  present  condition,  while 
our  hopes,  our  aspirations,  and  our  efforts  should  be  directed  to  the  ame 
lioration  of  the  ills  that  surround  us  and  the  removal  of  the  obstacles  that 
lie  in  the  way  of  our  usefulness.  Such  is  the  teaching  of  philosophy,  such 
the  dictate  of  justice. 

The  changes  which  he  then  described  have  been  more  re 
markable  since.  Death  has  been  busy  with  those  who  belonged 
to  that  Thirty-fifth  Congress  in  which  we  first  met.  Their  roll 
is  lessening  year  by  year.  It  was  the  first  Congress  in  which 
I  served.  The  old  Hall  and  its  members,  by  some  natural  law 
of  memory,  rise  before  me  with  photographic  vividness  and 
with  more  dramatic  interest  than  even  later  Congresses,  in  this 
new  Chamber.  It  was  during  that  Congress,  on  the  17th  of 
December,  1857,  that  we  migrated  to  this  Hall.  I  recall  the 
solemn  prayer  of  our  Chaplain,  Eev.  Mr.  Caruthers,  "that  it 
should  be  made  a  temple  of  honor,  patriotism,  and  purity." 
That  scene  is  the  more  graphically  pictured  in  memory,  as  upon 
that  day  it  was  my  fortune,  good  or  ill,  to  make  the  first  speech 
in  this  Hall.  In  that  spectacle  no  form  stands  out  in  bolder 
relief  than  that  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.  How  changed,  all; 
and  what  changes — both  in  the  personnel  of  the  House,  the 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OP   GEORGE  S.   HOUSTON.  75 

subjects  discussed,  and  the  fierce  passions  which  then  raged 
here  as  the  premonition  of  other  conflicts!  Ah,  sir,  our  present 
politics  are  but  a  summer's  sea,  calm  and  serene ;  then  it  was  a 
frenzied  tumult.  The  wild  passions  of  that  time  developed  the 
peculiar  characteristics  of  every  member.  Not  more  distinct 
and  individual  were  they  than  the  trees  of  the  forest;  and  in 
no  one  among  them  is  there  found  so  fit  an  emblem  of  the  tough 
fiber  and  gnarled  nature  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  as  in  the  oak. 

What  a  galaxy  of  varied  and  lustrous  attributes  shone  in 
that  assemblage:  the  Washburnes,  Banks,  Thayer,  Bishop, 
General  Sickles,  John  Kelly,  Haskins,  Corning,  and  Spinner, 
of  New  York;  B.  Joy  Morris,  Bocock,  Governor  Smith,  and 
Faulkner,  of  Virginia ;  Sherman,  Giddings,  Bingham,  and 
Groesbeck,  of  Ohio ;  Whiteley,  Humphrey  Marshall,  Samuel 
S.  Marshall,  Farnsworth,  and  Maynard,  of  Tennessee;  Mb- 
lack,  English,  and  Colfax,  of  Indiana;  Craig,  Clark,  and 
Phelps,  of  Missouri;  Curtis,  of  Iowa,  and  Lane,  of  Oregon. 
These  survive  and  have  filled  honorable  stations,  while  such 
men  as  Mr.  Speaker  Orr,  Quitman,  Florence,  Hickman,  Owen 
Jones,  Glancy  Jones,  Covode,  Montgomery,  Leiter,  Tompkins, 
Miller,  Stanton,  Stewart,  Henry  Winter  Davis,  John  G.  Davis, 
Harlan,  Bowie,  Millson,  Burlingame,  Nicholls,  Caskie,  Gilmer, 
Stalworth,  Shorter,  Eustis,  Burnett,  Clay,  Hughes,  Petit,  Love- 
joy,  Harris,  Caruthers,  Hawkins,  Heady,  Goode,  Hopkins,  Bur 
ton  Craig,  McQueen,  Seward,  Dowdell,  Elliott,  Peyton,  Under 
wood,  Jewett,  Warren,  and  other  stars,  differing  in  glory,  but 
now  shining  in  other  spheres !  But  why,  sir,  extend  this  roll 
of  death?  One-half  of  that  Congress  have  crossed  the  silent 
river  to  the  viewless  realm.  The  great  issues  they  debated  are 
settled  by  the  stern  wager  of  battle,  and  their  contentions 
ended  in  that  "other  country  beyond  the  sun." 

Five  beside  myself  remain  to  illustrate  the  vicissitudes  of 


76  ADDRESS  OF  ME.   COX   ON  THE 

political  and  mortal  life;  the  gentleman  from  Georgia  [Mr. 
STEPHENS],  from  Mississippi  [Mr.  SINGLETON],  from  Texas 
[Mr.  KEAGAN],  from  Tennessee  [Mr.  ATKINS],  and  from  North 
Carolina  [Mr.  SCALES].  A  few  have  been  transferred  to  the 
other  branch  of  Congress;  Senators  LAMAR,  PENDLETON, 
MORRLLL,  and  DAWES.  Some  fell  bravely  in  the  fierce  en 
counter  to  vindicate  their  thought:  Branch,  Barksdale,  Keitt, 
Jenkins,  Zollicoffer,  Moore,  Kuffiu,  Garnett,  Shaw,  and  others; 
while  of  those  who  fought  them,  Curtis,  Cocker-ill,  Blair,  and 
others  survived  the  war  only  to  die  where  affection  admin 
istered  its  last  offices.  The  vernal  season  which  is  bathing  the 
land  in  sunlight,  and  making  the  melody  of  birds  in  the  woods; 
which  is  warming  into  new  life  the  beauty  of  the  flower  and 
the  splendor  of  the  grass,  is  weaving  its  garlands  over  hillocks 
where  their  remains  repose.  It  teaches  by  its  analogy  the 
resurrection  and  the  life  of  our  human  bodies.  It  scatters  its 
flood  of  floral  promise,  and  bends  its  iris  of  hope  over  the  liv 
ing  and  the  dead,  dyed  in  all  the  hues  of  a  sunlit  heaven,  as 
the  covenant  of  God  with  man,  of  our  immortality.  Amid 
these  changes,  I  cannot  refrain  from  reflecting  that  I  am  left 
alone  here  as  the  surviving  member  of  that  Thirty-fifth  Con 
gress  from  the  North,  while  from  the  South  there  remain  but 
the  five  I  have  named  of  that  splendid  group  who  challenged 
the  admiration  of  their  opponents  by  the  gifts  of  eloquence 
with  which  they  championed  and  adorned  their  cause. 

Of  this  number  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  while  he  was  one  of 
the  leaders,  if  not  the  leader,  of  legislation,  was  not  one  of  that 
galaxy  of  orators  who  "graced  the  noble  fervor  of  the  hour" 
by  urging  the  disparting  of  our  States. 

If  southern  association  could  have  made  GEORGE  S.  Hous 
TON  a  devotee  of  the  peculiar  tenets  which  found  their  final 
issue  in  force,  he  would  have  been  such  a  devotee.    Born  in 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  77 

the  State  of  Tennessee,  so  prolific  of  statesmen  of  heroic  mold 
and  civic  qualities,  deriving  his  early  lineage  from  Ireland,  and 
on  his  mother's  side  his  lineage  from  South  Carolina,  educated 
for  the  law  in  the  State  of  Kentucky,  he  sought  the  fresh  and 
attractive  field  of  Alabama  in  the  morning  of  his  career.  After 
honoring  his  profession  in  oflices  wherein  his  legal  abilities 
were  displayed,  within  a  decade  after  his  removal  to  Alabama 
he  was  elected  to  the  Federal  Congress.  He  served  his  State 
here  from  1841  to  1847,  when  he  retired  to  resume  his  pro 
fession.  The  stirring  events  of  1850-'ol,  growing  out  of  peril 
ous  sectional  questions,  again  called  him  to  the  front.  Here 
he  remained  as  the  faithful  trustee  of  his  people  until  his  State 
seceded. 

He  retired  with  sorrowful  heart  and  brimming  eye  to  his 
home,  for  he  saw  with  the  prescience  of  a  statesman  the  terri 
ble  eventualities  of  the  conflict  which  he  always  deprecated. 

While  the  red  storm  of  war  raged  around  his  home,  he  re 
mained,  like  many  other  men  equally  chivalric,  a  sad  spectator 
in  the  conflicts  of  force. 

When  the  war  ended,  and  failing  then  to  secure  in  1865  and 
1866  a  seat  in  the  Senate  to  which  he  was  elected,  his  people, 
in  1874,  sought  for  him,  their  first  citizen,  as  the  head  of  the 
State.  He  was  made  their  governor,  and  began  the  work  of 
building  up  the  waste  places  which  the  desolation  of  war  had 
made.  He  made  a  highway  for  the  people;  and,  lifting  his 
voice  above  the  ruin  and  .distress  around  him,  he  began  the 
work  of  construction  with  that  sagacious  adaptation  of  means 
to  end  which  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  genuine  states 
manship. 

In  seeking  for  the  pivotal  characteristic  of  this  representa 
tive  man,  it  is  to  the  honor  of  his  nature  that  it  is  not  found  in 
the  desire  to  destroy.  There  is  in  every  human  heart  some 


78  ADDRESS  OF  MR.   COX  ON  THE 

controlling  thought — the  end-all  and  be-all  of  exertion.  It.is 
that  mysterious  and  inagic  inspiration  which  exalts  the  daily 
work  of  life  into  a  daily  beauty.  It  evokes  out  the  unreal, 
reality.  It  is  the  aura  which  sustains  the  intellectual  and 
moral  nature,  giving  it  stamina  and  energy,  as  the  atmosphere 
sustains  our  physical  existence.  It  directs  the  aimless  and 
erratic  meanderings  of  the  mind  into  fruitful,  smooth,  and 
healthful  currents.  It  creates  the  loftier  life,  and  in  death  it 
inspires  loving  hands  to  weave  chaplets  for  the  tomb  of  the 
departed. 

The  genius  of  this  statesman's  life  is  found  as  well  in  his 
reticence  and  retiracy,  when  the  havoc  of  war  menaced  and 
ruined  his  State,  as  in  the  vigor  with  which,  when  that  havoc 
was  over  and  its  debris  lay  around  him  in  order!  ess  despair,  he 
removed  the  charred  framework  and  began  to  replace  it  with 
happy  homes  and  good  rule  for  a  contented  people.  To  him 
more  than  to  any  other  man  in  Alabama  that  State  owes  its 
resurrection.  He  rolled  away  the  stone  from  its  sepulcher,  and, 
like  the  good  angel,  guarded  its  door.  Amidst  all  the  perils  of 
surf  and  sunken  rock  the  warning  voice  of  Governor  HOUSTON 
had  here  spoken  peace  and  good- will  for  the  tranquillity  of  the 
whole  land  and  its  indestructible  unity.  It  had  spoken  in 
vain.  His  State  was  launched  on  the  tide  of  war.  She  en 
listed  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  thousand  of  her  sons  in  the 
Confederate  army;  one-fourth  of  them  fell  fighting  for  the 
southern  cause.  Everywhere,  in  field  and  village,  city  and 
country,  there  was  devastation.  Even  after  the  war,  misgov- 
ernment  and  maladministration  added  their  cruelties  and  bur 
dens  to  the  desolating  effects  of  the  war.  But  these,  which 
were  discouragements  for  others,  were  to  him  incentive  and 
ambition.  His  genius  for  rebuilding  uprose  with  the  dire 
emergency.  It  is  said  of  Alabama,  after  it  was  traversed  by 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.  79 

the  Spanish  army  under  De  Soto,  more  than  three  centuries 
ago,  seeking  for  gold  and  in  the  search  drenching  it  in  blood, 
"that  the  dark  curtain  that  had  covered  her  territory  was 
suddenly  lifted,  a  brilliant  but  bloody  panorama  passed  across 
the  stage,  and  then  all  was  shrouded  in  primeval  darkness." 
This  chiaro  oscuro  of  the  historic  Kembrandt  but  faintly  por 
trays  the  dark  shadows  which  rested  upon  the  Alabama  of 
1865-'66.  But  the  picture  did  not  appal  the  stanch  heart  of 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.  He  manfully  began  to  wash  out  the 
stains  of  blood;  he  desired  to  "scatter  plenty  o'er  a  smiling 
land";  he  pleaded  for  reconciliation,  and  by  his  efforts  and 
under  his  magic  the  spears  of  grain  burst  into  gold  and  the 
cotton-pod  into  snow.  While  by  his  wise  policy  he  elevated 
the  credit  of  his  State  and  saved  it  from  insolvency  and  debt, 
he  helped  to  open  his  wonderful  State  and  its  opulent  resources 
of  mine  and  plantation  to  the  light,  which  has  since  given  to 
its  people  encouragement,  good  government,  and  renewed  pros 
perity. 

The  magic  by  which  he  controlled  affairs  was  not  altogether 
his  knowledge  and  experience.  His  nature  was  not  devoid  of 
ready  sympathies,  and  even  poetic  sentiment,  though  he  sel 
dom  revealed  himself  in  this  relation.  But  it  could  not  be 
otherwise  with  one  nerved  by  the  pure  air  and  pleasant  sun  of 
Alabama.  He  represented  no  dreamy  sentimentality  and  no 
impractical  abstractions ;  for  that  portion  of  Alabama  to  which 
he  was  accustomed  has  not  the  soft  local  coloring  like  that 
which  interpenetrates  the  magnolia-laden  air  on  the  margin  of 
the  Mexican  sea.  There  the  breath,  shine,  and  flora  of  spring 
glorify  even  the  midwinter.  Living  within  the  crescent  which 
the  majestic  Tennessee  makes  as  it  bends  through  the  upper 
region  of  Alabama,  his  mind  took  from  its  scenery  something 
of  that  rugged  cast  which  the  soft  allurements  of  the  farther 


80  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   COX  ON  THE 

South  did  not  mitigate  or  temper.  There  runs  through  his  life, 
like  the  ridge  of  iron  through  the  heart  of  his  State,  virile  vir 
tues  of  unbending  and  inexorable  honesty.  But  with  all  this 
he  was  pervious  to  the  influences  of  sentiment,  and  his  life  was 
free  from  the  vices  and  stains  of  passion.  The  mountains  and 
streams  of  his  State — the  early  adventures  arising  out  of  Span 
ish,  French,  American,  and  Indian  conflicts ;  the  romantic 
legends  of  his  State,  woven  into  a  web  of  witchery  by  the  in 
digenous  poetry  of  the  South — its  prehistoric  mounds  and  his 
toric  memories ;  its  constellation  of  honored  names,  such  as  the 
Kings,  Lipscombs,  Gaineses,  Toulmins,  McKinleys,  Moores, 
Crabbs,  Lewises,  Clemenses,  Yanceys,  Bibbs,  Pickenses,  Fitz- 
patricks,  Carrolls,  Clays,  Elinores,  Forsyths,  Walkers,  Hill- 
iards,  Pughs,  Shorters,  and  Currys  in  the  State,  and  the 
Evanses,  Baldwins,  Meaks,  and  Hodgsons  in  the  republic  of 
letters,  honored  as  well  in  other  States  as  in  Alabama — these 
were  a  part  of  his  local  pride  and  literary  amenity. 

My  honored  friend  [Mr.  FORNEY]  has  drawn  a  picture  of  the 
landscape  around  his  home,  and  adorned  it  by  a  stanza  from 
one  of  the  cantos  of  a  favorite  southern  poem  descriptive  of 
the  beautiful  valley  of  the  Tennessee.  It  was  impossible  with 
such  ennobling  examples  of  superior  men,  and  with  such  a 
physical  surrounding,  with  its  jeweled  islands  set  in  flowing 
waters,  and  with  its  mountains  like  giant  sentinels 

To  guard  its  pictured  valley's  rest, 

that  the  imagination  even  of  one  so  practical  in  the  daily  rou 
tine  of  professional  and  legislative  life  should  not  have  par 
taken  something  of  the  quality  of  this  splendid  land,  and  of 
the  attributes  of  its  noble  men. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  is  no  sweeter  word  in  any  tongue  than 
Alabama!  Most  musical  iu  its  tone,  it  echoes  its  legendary 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.     81 

meaning.  Among  the  many  fanciful  stories  connected  with 
this  State  of  legends  is  that  which  is  engraved  upon  its 
escutcheon  above  us.  It  is  said  that  a  tribe  of  Indians,  flying 
from  their  enemies,  reached  a  splendid  river.  There  a  chief 
struck  his  weapon  into  the  soil,  exclaiming,  "Alabama!" 
"Here  ice  rest."  Who  is  there  so  practical  that  he  would  de- 
poetize  this  incident  by  questioning  its  authenticity  I  The 
very  sky  and  scenery  of  Alabama,  with  its  dreamy  loveliness, 
seem  to  give  it  reality.  "Here  we  rest!"  Ah,  sir,  he  who  did 
so  much  to  assuage  the  unrest  which  the  passions  and  ambi 
tion  of  men  created;  he  who  accomplished  so  much  and  so 
magically  by  his  word  and  work,  has  now  found  within  its 
bosom  that  rest  which  his  busy  life  did  not  bestow.  He  who 
lived  no  cloistered  life,  whose  active  thoughts  and  unblemished 
fame  gave  their  sweet  effluence  to  guard  and  restore  the  homes 
of  his  State,  measured  the  circle  of  his  own  felicity  in  contrib 
uting  to  that  of  his  people.  The  murmur  of  the  rivers  which 
flow  through  his  beloved  Alabama,  and  the  lapse  of  the  waves 
which  fall  upon  its  southern  shores,  break  in  melancholy  ca 
dences  to  sing  and  sigh  his  requiem,  and  lift  their  voices  in 
praise  of  him  who  after  doing  so  much  at  last  rests  from  his 
labors  amidst  the  sympathy  and  sorrow  of  his  bereaved  coun 
trymen.  Every  home  and  heart  from  the  stately  Tennessee  to 
the  beautiful  Mobile  Bay  contribute  to 

Shed  a  beauty  round  his  name — 
A  light  that  like  a  star  will  beam, 

Lustrous  and  large — a  golden  glory 
Adown  the  Future's  gliding  stream, 

To  gild  his  country's  morning  story ! 


11   H 


82  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   ATKINS   ON  THE 


Address  of  Mr.  ATKINS,  of  Tennessee. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  my  long  and  somewhat  intimate  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  late  Senator  HOUSTON,  and  the  well- 
known  high  esteem  in  which  I  held  his  character,  will  account 
for  the  request  with  which  I  am  honored  by  his  colleagues  to 
participate  in  the  mournful  services  of  this  memorial  occa 
sion.  After  what  has  been  already  so  well  said,  by  more  than 
one  speaker,  of  his  life  and  services,  it  would  seem  superfluous 
for  me  to  make  further  allusion  to  them,  except  as  an  illustra 
tion  of  his  character.  I  may  be  pardoned,  therefore,  for  refer 
ring  very  briefly  to  his  public  services,  and  especially  during 
the  period  it  fell  under  my  own  eyes.  When  I  first  entered 
this  Hall  as  a  member,  now  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago, 
the  name  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  stood  upon  the  roll  as  the 
acknowledged  leader  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives.  At 
this  particular  period  he  was  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Com- 
mitte'e,  having,  however,  previously  served  four  years  as  chair 
man  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means.  These  posts  of 
honor  had  been  accorded  to  him  by  common  consent  on  ac 
count  of  his  long,  able,  faithful  and  patriotic  services  as  a 
Eepresentative  from  the  State  of  Alabama — serving  at  that 
time  his  eighth  term,  and  he  was  afterward  re-elected  to  his 
ninth  term,  making  eighteen  years  in  Congress. 

Beared  in  the  Jeffersonian  school  of  American  politics,  as 
illustrated  and  administered  by  the  illustrious  sage  of  the  Her 
mitage,  it  was  natural  that  he  should  range  himself  beside 
President  Polk  and  ably  and  efficiently  sustain  his  administra 
tion,  which  sealed  to  this  country  a  magnificent  empire  whose 
agricultural  value  and  marvelous  mineral  wealth  exceeds  the 
approximation  even  of  an  estimate. 

At  a  later  day,  in  1850,  when  sectional  animosities  became 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE  S.   HOUSTON.  83 

so  intense  and  bitter  as  to  alarm  the  just  fears  of  the  patriots 
of  the  whole  country,  and  ended  in  calling  forth  the  most  im 
portant  and  the  last  efforts  of  the  great  American  Commoner 
for  the  pacification  of  the  sections  and  parties,  once  more 
healing  the  wounds  upon  the  body-politic  which  sectional  agi 
tation  had  inflicted,  the  faithful  historian  of  that  eventful 
epoch  in  American  annals  will  find  the  name  of  him  whose 
memory  we  this  day  embalm  in  our  heart  of  hearts  as  one  of 
the  strong,  active,  efficient,  and  prompt  supporters  of  the  com 
promise  measures  of  Mr.  Clay,  which  saved  these  States  from 
the  fratricidal  war  which  fate  had  decreed  only  a  decade  later. 
As  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  Mr. 
HOUSTON,  by  virtue  of  the  duties  and  prerogatives  of  his  posi 
tion,  stood  at  the  head  of  that  power  which  performed  the 
dual  service  of  pointing  out  the  sources  of  the  government's 
revenues  and  at  the  same  time  preparing  and  submitting  to 
the  House  of  Eepresentatives  the  annual  budget  of  expendi 
tures.  How  he  succeeded  let  the  pages  of  those  annals  speak 
to  the  millions  who  have  examined  and  will  hereafter  examine 
them.  With  a  country  as  large  then  as  it  is  now  (excepting 
Alaska),  such  was  the  rigid  economy  and  honest  simplicity 
with  which  the  affairs  of  the  General  Government  were  then 
conducted  that  he  was  enabled  to  fall  as  low  as  $52,000,000 
per  annum  for  the  net  ordinary  expenditures  of  this  na 
tion.  But  it  required  ceaseless  vigilance  and  unremitting 
toil,  coupled  with  an  honest  and  courageous  firmness  in 
defense  of  the  public  Treasury  against  the  horde  who  were 
then  as  they  are  ever  ready,  like  vultures,  to  prey  upon  it, 
to  keep  within  the  limits  of  such  practical  economy.  I  recall 
among  others  of  that  period  the  names  of  three  distinguished 
men  (two  of  whom  were  mentioned  by  my  distinguished  friend 
Mr.  Cox)  now  living,  but  long  since  voluntarily  retired  to 


84  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   ATKINS   ON   THE 

private  life,  who  were  the  associates,  friends,  and  active  sup 
porters  of  HOUSTON  and  his  frugal  policy.  To  one  familiar 
with  that  period  I  need  not  mention  the  names  of  George  W. 
Jones,  of  Tennessee  j  John  Letcher,  of  Virginia,  and  John  S. 
Phelps,  of  Missouri.  Whatever  bill  of  expenditures  went 
through  Congress  passed  beneath  the  searching  gaze  of  their 
watchful  eyes,  and  was  doubtless  necessary  to  the  pulic  weal. 

No  measure  of  doubtful  constitutionality  or  expediency 
eluded  their  untiring  vigils.  In  this  guardianship  of  the  pub 
lic  Treasury  Mr.  HOUSTON  stood  forth  as  the  worthy  and  ac 
cepted  leader. 

I  shall  not  refer  further  to  his  public  service,  for  that  has 
been  already  more  worthily  treated  than  I  could  hope  to  do. 
I  will  add  a  word  as  to  some  of  the  more  prominent  traits  of 
his  character  as  seen  by  me,  perhaps  through  the  lens  of  per 
sonal  friendship  too  partial  to  be  accurate.  And  although  it 
is  only  the  omniscient  eye  of  God  that  can  penetrate  the  secret 
chanrber  of  the  human  heart  and  read  the  thoughts  and  feel 
ings  of  men,  nevertheless  the  lifetime  actions  of  men  may  be 
reasonably  accepted  as  the  true  indicia  of  their  characters. 
Tried  by  this  rule,  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  was  an  honest  man. 
Truly  he  could  say: 

I  know  myself  now,  and  I  feel  within  me 
A  peace  above  all  earthly  dignities, 
A  still  and  quiet  conscience. 

Throughout  his  career  of  three-score  years  and  ten,  whether 
in  the  private  or  public  walks  of  life,  he  never  practiced  fraud 
or  deception  upon  any  one.  On  all  questions  which  rose  to 
the  dignity  of  an  issue  he  always,  after  investigatior,  promptly 
and  fearlessly  maintained  his  convictions.  He  was  careful 
never  to  disappoint  just  expectations,  whether  of  his  constitu 
ency,  his  friends,  or  of  his  enemies.  He  placed  great  stress 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON. 


85 


upon  accuracy ;  indeed  lie  may  have  seemed  at  times  a  little 
hypercritical,  so  much  was  he  opposed  to  loose  and  extravagant 
statements  and  semi-misrepresentations.  This  trait  dominat 
ing  his  character,  he  was  perforce  an  ardent  devotee  at  the 
shrine  of  that  noblest  of  virtues,  sacred  truth.  If  he  ever 
seemed  censorious  or  controversial,  it  was  because  he  was  un 
willing  in  the  least  to  tolerate  dissimulation.  Hence  his  state 
ments  of  facts,  being  thoroughly  accurate  and  rigidly  true, 
always  gained  an  easy  lodgment  before  the  people  or  the  jury, 
the  court,  or  at  the  forum  of  his  country's  councils.  His  sense 
of  justice  was  well-nigh  as  sensitive  as  his  love  of  truth.  He 
had  such  reverence  for  this  grand  old  virtue  that  he  could  hold 
up  the  scales  wherein  should  be  weighed  the  rights  of  a  friend 
and  an  enemy  and  give  a  decision  supported  by  the  logic  of 
common  sense  and  inexorable  right  that  would  hush  every  dis 
sentient  note.  So  even  balanced  were  these  faculties  and  prin 
ciples  of  his  mind  and  the  sensibilities  of  his  heart,  it  is  not 
strange  that  he  was  conservative. 

Excesses  of  all  kinds  he  avoided,  and  always  stopped  before 
he  reached  extreme  ends.  Harsh  or  violent  measures  he  ever 
regarded  as  the  offspring  of  passion  and  empiricism,  and  not 
of  judgment  and  philosophy.  Taken  altogether,  while  it  will 
not  be  claimed  for  him  that  he  was  the  equal  in  ability  and 
renown  to  a  very  few  names  of  American  statesmen,  yet  im 
partial  history  will  place  the  honored  name  of  Senator  HOUS 
TON  high  upon  the  monumental  shaft  of  immortal  names  that 
shall  defy  the  corroding  tooth  of  Time  to  efface  and  shall  stand 
unmoved  by  the  shock  of  Oblivion's  waves  as  they  lash  against 
its  granite  base.  But  Tennessee,  his  mother,  and  Alabama,  his 
foster-mother,  claiming  him  as  the  pride  of  their  hearts,  will 
not  be  permitted  to  appropriate  the  worth  of  his  character  and 
the  value  of  his  example  alone  to  themselves.  The  sister- 


86  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   SHELLEY   ON   THE 

hood  of  this  great  Union  of  States  claims  him,  too,  as  her  son, 
and  to-day  holds  him  up  before  the  millions  of  our  people  as  a 
shining  light  to  guide  the  footsteps  of  American  statesmanship 
and  American  manhood. 

Statesman,  yet  friend  to  truth,  of  soul  sincere, 

Of  action  faithful,  and  in  honor  clear ; 

Who  broke  no  promise,  served  no  private  end ; 

Who  gained  no  title,  and  who  lost  no  friend ; 

Ennobled  by  himself,  by  all  approved, 

Praised,  wept,  and  honored  by  the  land  he  loved. 


Address  of  Mr.  SHELLEY,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  a  long  and  active  public  life  affords  great  op 
portunities  and  facilities  for  the  development  of  native  talent 
and  the  acquirement  of  a  high  order  of  statesmanship,  and 
promotes  the  highest  standard  of  patriotism.  In  a  country 
like  ours,  where  the  humblest  citizen  may  aspire  to  the  most 
exalted  station,  where  the  places  of  honor  and  trust  are  open 
to  the  competition  of  all,  it  is  rarely  the  case  that  any  man  is 
permitted  to  enjoy  continuously,  for  any  considerable  period  of 
time,  the  preference  of  his  countrymen.  When  it  does  occur, 
the  person  so  preferred  must  have  developed  superior  wisdom 
and  fitness  for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  public  station. 

Very  few  men  in  this  country  who  entered  public  service  in 
early  manhood  have  made  such  an  impression  upon  the  public 
mind  and  heart  as  to  enable  them  to  be  thus  honored  through 
out  a  long  life ;  but  conspicuous  among  these  few  was  the  late 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  whose  life  and  public  services,  in  con 
formity  to  a  beautiful  and  time-honored  custom  of  Congress, 
we  are  here  to  commemorate. 

Years  ago  Senator  HOUSTON  was  called  from  the  pursuits  of 
private  life  to  represent  his  people  in  the  Legislature  of  Ala 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  87 

bama,  since  which  time,  with  the  exception  of  short  intervals, 
his  services  have  been  devoted  to  his  country,  closing  his 
career  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  full  of  years  and  full 
of  honors. 

Senator  HOUSTON  was  not  distinguished  for  the  brilliancy 
of  his  talents  or  the  grandeur  of  his  conceptions.  He  did  not 
acquire  his  influence  or  achieve  his  success  through  the  in 
spirations  of  genius  or  by  the  sheer  force  of  intellectual  power. 
He  did  not  control  or  sway  men  by  the  magnetic  imfluence  of 
superior  declamation  or  force  of  logic.  He  was  not  gifted  with 
the  power  of  originating  new  and  grand  measures  of  public 
policy,  nor  did  he  waste  his  time  on  undeveloped  theories  of 
political  economy,  but  he  possessed  the  wisdom  of  prudence 
and  the  virtue  of  patient,  untiring  industry,  which  gave  him 
an  influence  over  men  and  brought  him  success.  He  was  pow 
erful,  though  not  brilliant — powerful  because  he  loved  his 
country  and  his  people  ;  powerful  because  he  was  honest  and 
upright;  powerful  because  he  was  practical,  cautious,  and 
deliberate;  powerful  because  he  combined  a  high  order  of 
common  sense  with  great  goodness  of  heart,  guided  by  an 
honest  desire  to  promote  his  country's  welfare.  To  his  good 
sense  he  added  industry  ;  to  his  industry,  honesty;  to  his  hon 
esty,  prudence;  to  his  prudence,  patience;  and  to  patience, 
energy  and  perseverance.  Possessing  all  these  elements  of 
usefulness,  stimulated  by  a  lofty  and  patriotic  ambition,  he  de 
served  the  success  he  attained,  for  he  was  great  in  his  good 
ness,  and  good  in  his  greatness. 

Years  of  faithful,  earnest  devotion  to  their  welfare  and  in 
terests  have  enshrined  him  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  of  Ala 
bama,  and,  though  dead,  his  memory  and  good  deeds  will  live 
on  forever.  It  is  good  to  dwell  upon  the  lives  of  such  men. 
They  are  full  of  instruction.  They  teach  us  the  arts  of  useful- 


88  ADDRESS   OF  MR.  SAMFORD   ON   THE 

ness,  and  point  the  way  to  honor  and  success.  They  stimulate 
the  progress  of  civilization  and  leave  the  impress  of  their  vir 
tues  on  every  page  of  the  country's  history. 

We  are  often  shocked  by  the  sudden  and  untimely  death  of 
friends  who  are  cut  down  in  the  full  vigor  of  manhood,  in  the 
very  midst  of  a  career  of  usefulness.  Such  deaths  always  give 
us  pain,  and  we  feel  that  for  them  the  ends  and  aims  of  life 
have  been  thwarted.  But  in  contemplating  the  life  and  career 
of  Senator  HOUSTON,  while  we  mourn  his  loss,  we  feel  that  he 
has  fulfilled  his  destiny,  finished  his  work,  and  gone  to  receive 
his  reward — a  reward  higher  and  nobler  than  peoples  or 
potentates  or  powers  can  bestow  for  a  well-spent  life. 


Address  of  Mr.  SAMFORD,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  as  the  old  year  was  dying  its  setting  sun 
lighted  to  the  tomb  a  great  and  good  man  in  Alabama,  for  on 
its  last  day,  as  though  to  gild  the  galaxy  of  its  dead,  GEORGE 
S.  HOUSTON  at  his  home  in  Athens,  surrounded  by  weeping 
family  and  devoted  friends,  after  a  long  life  of  eventful  activ 
ity  and  usefulness,  "  fell  asleep." 

For  nearly  half  a  century,  with  short  intervals,  he  served 
his  people  in  official  station  and  was  faithful  in  every  public 
trust.  Many  years  he  served  in  this  House  and  enjoyed  as 
the  head,  respectively,  of  the  Committee  on  Military  Affairs, 
Ways  and  Means,  and  Judiciary,  an  honor  rarely,  if  ever, 
accorded  to  any  other  Representative ;  and  while  it  would  be 
unjust  to  others  to  say  of  him, 

Among  the  faithless,  faithful  only  he, 

yet  it  does  no  man  wrong  to  place  him  in  the  foremost  rank 
of  laborious,  upright,  painstaking,  and  honest  statesmen. 

If  the  tongues  of  dying  men, 
Enforce  attention  like  deep  harmony, 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  89 

with  what  devotion  ought  we  to  listen  to  the  lessons  of  sages 
and  patriots  whose  "  tongues  are  now  stringless  instruments," 
and  whom  God  has  endowed  with  power  to  speak  for  them 
selves  and  for  us,  and  to  us,  and  who  will  speak  to  the  ages 

with 

A  golden  drift  thro'  all  the  song. 

It  is  Hawthorne  who  says  that  "  to  take  in  the  meaning  of 
a  picture  you  must  be  alone  with  it."  The  lives  of  great  and 
good  men  are  never  properly  comprehended  until  we  contem 
plate  them  in  the  solitude  of  the  grave-yard,  to  which  they 
seem  to  invite  us  as  to  a  grand  moral  gymnasium,  and  pro 
pound  to  us  and  to  posterity  the  sublime  lessons'  of  glorious 
living  and  noble  dying.  It  is  here,  as  "  into  a  high  mountain 
apart,"  lifted  above  the  consuming  cares  and  petty  strifes  of 
life,  away  from  the  babbling  voices  of  a  selfish  world,  that  we 
see  humanity  transfigured  from  mortal  coil  to  the  shining  vest 
ments  of  a  higher  life. 

There  are  two  considerations,  Mr.  Speaker,  appropriate  to 
such  an  occasion  as  this.  The  first  relates  to  the  inherent 
elements  of  a  great  and  good  character  like  that  of  our  departed 
friend.  The  second  regards  that  character  in  its  totality,  in 
its  motives,  its  intelligent  and  skillful  conduct  and  beneficent 
achievements  in  the  affairs  of  men,  the  history  of  its  activi 
ties  in  practical  life,  which  illuminates  and  exalts  it  into  an 
example  for  our  admiration  and  emulation. 

Both  in  the  analysis  of  the  character  of  Senator  HOUSTON 
and  in  the  history  of  his  distinguished  public  services,  we  find 
considerations  to  reconcile  us  to  the  labors  of  life ;  in  view  of 
the  transcendent  rewards  of  virtue,  to  exalt  our  hopes  of  use 
fulness,  to  encourage  aspirations  for  honest  fame,  to  animate 
patriotic  devotion  to  the  liberties,  prosperity,  and  glory  of  our 
country. 


12  H 


90          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SAMFORD  ON  THE 

I  will  not  violate  the  proprieties  of  the  occasion  by  uttering 
all  I  feel;  but  standing  here  to  mouth  an  unmeaning  eulogy  as 
a  part  of  merely  formal  and  empty  ceremonial  of  conventional 
respect  would  violate  the  sanctity  of  that  friendship  which  ex 
isted  between  him  and  myself,  of  which  I  hope  to  retain  until  I 
die  the  gentlest  memory  and  most  thorough  appreciation. 

No  man  who  knew  him  can  doubt  that  it  may  be  as  truly 
said  of  him  as  of  Augustus  Tholuck,  that  he  was  "  without 
pretense  or  cant."  No  man  standing  at  his  grave  will  deny 
that  his  whole  life  evinced  an  heroic  love  of  truth.  This  de 
votion  to  truth  logically  induced  frankness,  independence, 
and  courage.  These  are  the  glorious,  cognate  virtues  which 
blossom  on  that  heavenly-born  tree  of  life,  and  mature  fruit 
more  precious  than  any  which  ever  graced  the  garden  of  the 
Hesperides  or  grew  in  the  hanging  gardens  of  Babylon.  It 
was  in  perfect  harmony  with  these  virtues  that  in  all  the  rela 
tions  of  life  he  was  charitable  as  he  was  frank ;  conservative 
as  he  was  independent,  and  conciliatory  as  he  was  courageous. 
No  impatient  zeal  ever  betrayed  his  counsels  into  rashness; 
the  storm  of  passion  never  dashed  his  vessel  upon  the  rocks 
of  inhospitable  shores. 

An  honest  partisan,  he  allowed  no  prejudices  to  cloud  his 
vision  or  mar  his  policy  where  his  country  was  concerned. 

I  leave  to  older  men  to  recount  the  conflicts  and  triumphs  of 
Mr.  HOUSTON'S  earlier  career.  From  the  beginning  he  was  a 
man  of  the  people,  and  was  always  willing  to  leave  his  cause 
with  them.  The  confidence  with  which  he  appealed  to  them, 
and  the  enthusiasm  which  ever  greeted  such  an  appeal,  caused 
some  men  to  thoughtlessly  call  him  a  demagogue.  In  a  literal 
and  noble  sense,  that  he  was  a  demagogue  is  true ;  that  he 
was  such  in  the  unholy  and  ignoble  popular  acceptation,  I 
absolutely  deny. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  91 

He  was  affable  and  polite  to  the  humblest  citizen — all  gen 
tlemen  are.  He  was  gentle  toward  the  weakness  and  sympa 
thized  with  the  misfortunes  of  others — a  generous  nature 
required  this.  He  was  particularly  regardful  of  the  feelings 
of  men  in  lowly  station — an  infallible  mark  of  greatness.  He 
recognized  the  existence  of  as  royal  virtue  and  noble  worth 
among  men  and  women  striving  in  the  humbler  spheres  of  life 
as  could  be  found  in  the  gilded  salons  of  those  who  wrought  in 
the  "high  stations  of  renown,"  and  he  was  man  enough  to  de 
clare  it.  He  was  considerate  of  the  opinions  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  always  and  forever  battled  for  their  rights  in  high 
places,  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  and  deferred  to  the  people 
as  the  sovereign  power  in  the  land.  If  these  things  constitute 
a  demagogue,  then  he  was  one,  and  I  honor  him  for  it. 

While  for  many  years  a  Kepresentative  in  this  House,  in  the 
blaze  of  society,  in  the  whirlwind  and  noise  of  political  strifes 
and  personal  ambitions,  he  preserved  the  simplicity  of  man 
ners  and  purity  of  morals  which  brought  the  satisfying  ex 
periences  of  a  rustic  Mantuan  life — as  little  joining  in  the 
frivolous  dissipation  of  social  excesses,  in  the  vain  world's 
chorus  of  applause  at  the  petty  pursuits  and  empty  triumphs 
of  little  men,  as  did  old  Elijah  in  the  guilty  vanities  of  Ahab's 
court. 

It  was  during  this  time  of  his  service  here  as  a  distinguished 
democratic  leader  that,  in  returning  to  his  constituents,  in  the 
full  consciousness  of  his  rectitude  and  the  honest  pride  of  his 
cordial  appreciation,  he  was  facetiously  said  "to  shake  hands 
with  them  by  the  acre." 

Mr.  Speaker,  among  the  great  men  of  that  day  GEORGE 
S.  HOUSTON  was  every  inch  a  peer.  Benjamin  Fitzpatrick 
was  then  a  Senator  from  Alabama,  a  consummately  wise  party 
tactician,  a  liberal  statesman,  and  an  expert  manager  of  men, 


92  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SAMFORD   ON  THE 

yet  he  relied  very  implicitly  upon  the  sympathy,  advice,  and 
co-operation  of  this  born  tribune  of  the  people.  In  his  victori 
ous  campaigns  in  North  Alabama  he  won  and  proudly  wore 
the  appropriate  soubriquet  of  "  the  Bald  Eagle  of  the  Mount 
ains,"  and  eagle  he  was !  His  eyrie  was  on  the  loftiest  peak, 
the  very  Caucasus  of  these  mountains,  and  his  scream  was 
heard  through  all  their  democratic  fastnesses.  There  is  a  royal 
decoration  which  William  of  Prussia  sometimes  sent  to  illustri 
ous  Germans  in  their  age  and  failing  strength  known  as  the 
"Star  of  the  Order  of  the  Eed  Eagle."  Senator  HOUSTON'S 
election  by  the  people  of  Alabama  to  the  Senate  was  a  more 
brilliant  decoration  of  a  grander  order,  that  of  the  "  Bald  Eagle 
of  the  Mountains."  The  difference  is  that  between  the  favor 
itism  of  kings  and  the  loving,  grateful  reverence  of  a  free 
people.  My  personal  acquaintance  with  him  began  some  time 
before  his  first  term  as  chief  magistrate  of  Alabama.  That 
acquaintance  was  from  its  first  inception  a  friendship  such  as 
might  subsist  between  an  aged  and  venerable  teacher  and  a 
young,  ardent  disciple  of  that  school  of  politics  founded  by 
Thomas  Jefferson. 

I  had  many  occasions  of  seeing  him  during  his  most  able 
and  successful  administration  of  that  high  office  to  which  he 
had  been  elevated  at  a  critical  period  in  the  history  of  that 
State,  of  all  the  Southern  States — of  all  the  States  of  this 
Union.  He  was  always  calm,  conservative,  collected,  and 
confident  in  his  powers  and  resources ;  unshaken  in  whatever 
complications  or  emergencies  might  surround  him.  He  was  a 
zealous  and  thorough  reformer  of  the  evils,  financial  abuses, 
and  of  all  the  vicious  courses  in  political  and  social  life  brought 
upon  the  State  by  the  extravagance,  reckless  corruptions,  and 
prescriptive,  pragmatical  tempers,  of  that  system  of  malice  and 
misgovernment  which  not  only  overthrew  the  rights  and  liber- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  93 

ties  of  the  people,  but  sapped  the  foundations  of  their  material 
prosperity  and  social  life — a  system  of  oppression,  terrorism, 
peculation,  insolence,  and  irresponsibility  without  a  parallel  in 
this  or  any  other  civilized  age. 

His  economy  was  exemplary  alike  in  its  far-reaching  and 
intelligent  methods,  and  its  sound  political  and  moral  theory. 
Although  far  advanced  in  years,  his  industry  was  untiring — 
quite  above  the  standard  measure  of  official  respectability, 
efficiency,  and  responsibility.  His  intelligence  was  equal  to 
the  demands  of  his  convictions,  to  his  firmness,  his  reformatory 
methods,  his  economy,  and  his  signal  industry. 

His  courage  and  impartiality  brought  the  dignity  of  his 
office  up  to  the  ancient,  which  was  his  own  high  standard  of 
purity  and  efficiency.  His  healing  hand  was  felt  on  every 
wound  which  afflicted  the  body-politic.  His  sustaining  official 
presence  pervaded  alike  the  halls  of  learning,  the  thorough 
fares  and  palaces  of  commerce,  and  the  humblest  homes  of  our 
agricultural  country  people.  He  was  such  a  man  and  such  an 
officer  as  old  Tacitus  would  have  delighted  to  set  in  a  historic 
frame  as  a  companion  piece  for  his  Agricola;  a  man  whom 
Plutarch,  with  his  life  before  him,  would  have  honored  with  a 
seat  in  his  historic  temple  between  his  Oamillus  and  his  Cato. 

At  the  close  of  his  administration,  so  great  was  his  popu 
larity  that  although  his  day  was  well  nigh  spent,  and  he  was 
opposed  as  a  candidate  for  a  seat  in  the  Senate  by  some  of  the 
most  intellectual  and  influential  gentlemen  of  the  State,  men 
distinguished  in  the  civil  affairs  of  government  and  had 
breasted  the  fiery  tempest  and  whirlwind  of  death  on  the  bat 
tle-field,  gentlemen  of  a  high  order  of  eloquence  and  attain 
ment  who  would  honor  any  station  in  any  government  in  the 
world— notwithstanding  all  this,  the  popular  wave  bore  him 
triumphantly  over  every  obstacle  into  the  high  seat  he  oc- 


94 


ADDRESS  OF  MB.  SAMFORD  ON  THE 


cupied  at  the  time  of  his  death.  It  may  be  true  that  other 
men  more  learned,  more  eloquent,  more  brilliant,  and  better 
adapted  by  the  vigor  of  unimpaired  manhood  to  the  duties 
of  the  station,  iu  whose  fidelity  the  people  had  absolute  con 
fidence,  contested  with  him  the  senatorial  palm,  but  a  grateful 
people  would  not  refuse  to  crown  his  labors  with  the  highest 
honor  at  their  disposal. 

His  early  death  was  generally  anticipated  at  the  time  of  his 
election.  His  sun  had  careened  beyond  its  zenith.  It  was  fast 
descending  behind  the  western  hills  and  sinking  into  the  shades 
of  night.  It  gathered  about  its  pavilion  golden  clouds,  and  it 
was  a  people's  wish  that  it  should  pass  away  from  their  sight 
in  the  purple  splendors  of  a  royal  procession. 

Mr.  Speaker,  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  descended  to  the  grave 
more  grandly  "robed  like  a  king"  than  Charlemagne  in  his 
marble  tomb,  and  the  people  of  my  State  unite  with  us  to  day 
in  gracing  his  memory  with  this  "  elegy  of  words  and  tears." 

He  belonged,  in  a  higher  and  a  better  than  the  classic  sense, 
to  an  heroic  age ;  to  that  noble  band  of  primitive  American 
patriots  who  not  only  founded  States  but  built  grand  repub 
lics,  the  heavenward  spires  of  whose  resounding  temples  glit 
ter  among  the  stars;  such  men  as  have  erected  Ohio  and 
Illinois,  Alabama  and  Mississippi,  and  Indiana  and  Kentucky, 
and  their  sister  States  into  great  Commonwealths,  and 
launched  them  with  streaming  banners  upon  the  tempestu 
ous  seas  of  government,  manned  by  such  crews  of  intelligent 
freemen  as  can  be  found  beneath  the  sun  only  among  their 
posterities,  and  freighted  with  the  destinies  of  all  the  coming 
millions  of  the  human  race. 

What  a  fitting  opportunity — what  a  patriotic  resolve — stand 
ing  by  the  grave  of  one  who  illustrated  the  statesmanship  of 
the  better  days  of  the  great  Eepublic,  to  bury  forever  the 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  95 

memories — oh,  how  bitter — of  all  the  past  feuds  and  bloody 
strifes  which  have  divided,  distracted,  and  in  all  ways  tortured 
and  cursed  the  laud  left  us  by  these  ancestral  heroes !  Draw 
ing  inspiration  from  the  undefiled  patriotism  which  clusters 
around  the  memories  springing  from  "  high  converse  with  the 
mighty  dead,"  for  the  love  of  country  and  for  the  sake  of  real 
union  why  can  we  not  allow  the  gaping  wounds  to  heal,  and 
with  unity  of  purpose,  unity  of  hope,  and  unity  of  effort  march 
on  to  the  accomplishment  of  our  country's  destiny,  a  grand, 
united,  free  Bepublic?. 

Mr.  Speaker,  there  is  one  trait  of  Senator  HOUSTON'S  char 
acter  which  unmentioned  would  leave  incomplete  any  notice  of 
him.  Its  entire  absence  would  mar  the  heroism  of  Luther  and 
detract  from  St.  Paul's  sublime  manhood.  As  pre-eminently 
as  any  man  with  whose  character  I  am  familiar,  GEORGE  S. 
HOUSTON  was  true  to  his  friends.  And  when  he  found  a 
friend  whose  adoption  would  stand  the  test  and  ordeal  of  trial, 
he  anchored  him  to  his  "soul  with  hooks  of  steel."  On  this 
subject  I  speak  whereof  I  know. 

But  such  as  he  was  he  has  gone  from  among  us.  He  passed 
away  calmly  and  quietly,  as  u  the  morning  star  melts  away  in 
the  sunlight." 

He  lies  as  low  as  Caesar — no  lower  than  kings  and  princes — 
no  higher  than  peasants  and  paupers.  The  Great  Leveler 
levels  evenly.  He  lies  as  low  as  you  and  I  and  all  of  us  shall 
shortly  lie. 

Such  as  he  was  he  has  gone ;  and 

Of  such  as  lie  was  there  be  few  on  earth, 
Of  such  as  he  was  there  are  many  in  Heaven, 
And  life  is  all  the  sweeter  that  he  lived, 
And  all  he  loved  more  sacred  for  his  sake, 
And  death  is  all  the  brighter  that  he  died, 
And  Heaven  is  all  the  brighter  that  he's  there. 

Casting  "  this  stone  upon  this  cairn"  my  task  is  done. 


96  ADDRESS  OF  MR.   LEWIS  ON  THE 


Address  of  Mr.  LEWIS,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  it  was  not  my  expectation  to  be  here  at  this 
time,  and  hence  I  had  made  no  preparation  to  participate  in 
these  ceremonies.  But  as  I  am  here,  and  as  I  represent  a 
large  portion  of  the  old  district  of  the  deceased  Senator, 
where  he  was  so  well  known,  loved,  and  honored,  I  feel  that 
I  would  be  unjust  to  my  constituents  and  wanting  in  rever 
ence  to  the  distinguished  dead  if  I  should  now  altogether  lay 
my  hands  upon  my  mouth.  I  must  offer  some  tribute,  how 
ever  humble  and  feeble,  to  the  memory  of  our  departed. friend. 

Those  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  deep  hold  that  Sena 
tor  HOUSTON  had  upon  the  affections  of  the  people  of  Ala 
bama  can  little  conceive  how  sharp  was  the  pang  that  ran 
through  our  borders  on  the  tidings  of  his  death.  He  had  been 
their  friend,  faithful  and  just  to  them ;  and  he  had  served  them 
with  a  fidelity  and  an  effectiveness  unsurpassed;  and  every 
household  felt  that  the  loss  was  personal  to  itself.  He  was  a 
popular  man  with  the  masses,  not  through  any  of  the  arts  of 
the  demagogue,  for  he  never  fawned  or  nattered  or  sacrificed 
principles  to  expediency;  but  because  he  was  of  them.  His 
heart  beat  in  sympathy  with  them.  He  knew,  honored,  and 
trusted  them.  He  was  the  unfailing  representative  of  their 
plain,  honest  ways,  of  their  saving  common  sense,  of  their 
straightforward  and  manly  courage,  and  of  their  devotion  to 
the  old  landmarks  and  the  essential  principles  of  constitutional 
liberty.  He  had  shared  their  toils,  had  known  their  sorrows, 
and  had  partaken  of  their  homely  joys  and  of  their  warm  free 
hospitality. 

His  own  life  was  work,  and  his  language  rife 
With  rugged  maxims  hewn  from  life. 

Standing  thus  on  a  common  ground  between  him  and  the 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  97 

people ;  possessed  of  a  mind  eminent  for  its  sagacity  and  prac 
ticalness  5  with  a  superb  physical  constitution  capable  of  all  en 
durance  ;  with  a  heart  large,  genial,  and  overflowing  with  its 
rich  vein  of  humor ;  a  spirit  bold,  combative,  even  aggressive, 
yet  never  deserted  by  his  inimitable  self-composure ;  combining 
the  happy  power  to  instruct,  illustrate,  and  amuse,  he  was  the 
most  successful  and  effective  speaker  that  I  have  ever  seen 
upon  the  hustings.  Conscious  of  his  thorough  knowledge  of 
men,  of  his  varied  experience,  of  his  enlarged  views,  of  his 
ripened  intellect,  and  his  familiarity  with  facts — for  like  Mr. 
Fox  he  thought  one  fact  worth  a  thousand  arguments— he  had 
that  confidence  which  boasteth  not  itself,  but  which,  as  Lord 
Chatham  said,  was  a  plant  of  slow  growth  in  an  aged  bosom. 

I  shall  not  attempt,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  portray  his  public  career. 
That  has  already  been  well  done  by  others. 

In  the  palmy  days  of  this  Kepublic  he  was  the  intimate 
friend  of  Silas  Wright,  the  trusted  adviser  of  President  Polk, 
and  the  intimate  associate  of  Mr.  Douglas.  He  was  the  chair 
man  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means,  and  for  many 
years  the  leader  of  this  House ;  and  in  the  eventful  days  that 
followed  reconstruction  he  was  the  chief  oracle  of  his  own 
State.  In  that  memorable  struggle  of  1874  for  our  redemption, 
as  the  champion  of  the  people  his  popularity  reconciled  all  dif 
ferences,  his  patriotism  won  all  hearts,  his  zeal  and  courage  in 
spired  all  confidence,  his  energy  overcame  all  obstacles,  and  he 
achieved  the  greatest  peace  victory  recorded  in  the  annals  of 
our  State,  the  beneficent  fruits  of  which  will  descend  to  gen- 
rations  yet  unborn. 

And,  as  my  friend  has  said,  the  people  were  not  ungrateful. 
They  demanded  of  their  immediate  representatives  that  they 
should  show  this  gratitude  by  elevating  him  to  that  exalted 
position  which  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death. 


13  H 


98          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HERNDON  ON  THE 

When  the  dread  summons  came  which  was  to  gather  him  to 
his  fathers,  although  he  had  passed  his  three-score  years  and 
ten  and  was  surrounded  by  loving  hearts  and  tended  by  gentle 
hands,  still  the  blow  was  a  severe  one  to  my  people.  We  had 
a  sore  need  of  him  in  these  days  of  modern  degeneracy.  We 
fondly  hoped  that  his  wisdom,  his  counsel,  and  his  example 
would  be  spared  to  us  for  his  full  term  in  the  Senate. 

If  the  last  days  which  he  spent  at  this  Capitol  cast  a  shadow 
of  disappointment  over  his  patriotic  soul  and  made  him  sigh  for 
the  better  days  of  the  Eepublic,  let  us  console  ourselves  with 
the  thought  that  he  has  joined  those  noble  patriots  of  the  past 
who  went  before  him,  and  with  their  sweet  companionship  can 
now  realize  in  the  light  of  eternal  truth  that  all  the  struggles 
and  sacrifices  for  human  liberty  have  not  been  in  vain. 


Address  of  Mr.  HERNDON,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  the  relations  which  I  bore  to  Senator  HOUS 
TON  seem  to  make  it  imperative  upon  me  not  to  remain  silent 
when  a  tribute  is  to  be  paid  to  his  memory. 

It  was  only  in  the  last  seven  years  of  his  life  that  I  had  any 
personal  acquaintance  with  him,  but  I  have  known  him  as  a 
public  man  from  the  time  that  my  attention  was  first  called  to 
the  conspicuous  characters  in  the  politics  of  Alabama.  No 
man,  save  William  E.  King,  late  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  remained  longer  and  more  continuously  in  public  life  in 
Alabama,  nor  more  occupied  the  attention  of  the  people  of  that 
State,  than  General  HOUSTON.  In  this  way  his  public  career 
became  known  to  me,  but  I  do  not  propose  now  to  trace  it 
throughout  the  long  period  which  it  covered.  This  has  been, 
or  will  be,  done  by  others.  I  shall  attempt  only  to  delineate 


UNIVERSITY 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON. 


99 


him  as  he  impressed  himself  upon  me,  and  sketch,  as  faithfully* 
as  my  words  can,  the  outlines  of  his  character. 

When  success  throughout  a  long  career  attends  one  in  every 
position,  in  every  aspiration,  and  in  every  undertaking,  and 
finally  crowns  his  hopes  and  his  ambitions,  the  world  will  con 
cede,  must  concede,  without  being  able  to  analyze  the  causes 
or  comprehend  the  qualities  which  secured  it,  that  there  must 
have  been  in  such  a  man  something  greater  and  superior  than 
in  other  men,  which  has  not  only  commanded  but  deserved  suc 
cess.  Success,  it  has  been  said,  is  the  highest  test  of  merit. 
No  one's  career  could  be  more  safely  submitted  to  this  test 
than  General  HOUSTON'S. 

From  his  earliest  manhood  down  to  the  end  of  his  long  life 
he  was  the  recipient  of  the  people's  confidence,  and,  except 
when  he  voluntarily  refused,  filled  offices  to  which  it  was  in 
their  power  to  elect  him.  Never  but  once  defeated,  with  his 
young  ambition  looking  upward  to  one  supreme  height,  he  as 
cended  step  by  step  from  the  lowest  rung  in  the  ladder  of  pre 
ferment  up  to  that  exalted  station  in  which  he  closed  his  mortal 
course,  and  from  which,  in  the  fullness  of  his  earthly  fame,  he 
was  translated,  we  reverently  trust,  to  that  Highest  Tribunal 
to  receive  the  well-earned  plaudit,  "  Well  done,  thou  good  and 
faithful  servant ;  thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things,  thou 
shalt  be  made  ruler  over  many." 

To  one  who  did  not  thoroughly  know  Senator  HOUSTON  it 
would  be  difficult  to  discern  the  causes  which  gave  to  him  his* 
unvaried  success.  He  was  popular  throughout  the  State,  and 
was  almost  the  idol  of  the  people  of  the  Congressional  district 
in  which  he  lived  ;  and  this  popularity  with  the  masses  scarcely 
waned  or  diminished  even  in  the  times  when  the  hearts  of  the 
people  were  stirred  to  their  depths  and  the  usual  calm  of  popu 
lar  feeling  was  broken  into  billowy  passion  by  the  dreadful 


100         ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HERNDON  ON  THE 

tempest  of  civil  war.  In  the  fast  changing  and  swift  revolving 
of  the  minds  and  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  people  in  those 
times,  passions  ebbing  and  flowing  as  the  tide  of  the  conflict 
ebbed  and  flowed,  long-worshiped  idols  were  overturned  and 
broken  in  pieces,  trusted  oracles  silenced  or  contemned,  and 
leaders  were,  as  by  a  breath,  made  and  unmade ;  but  amid  all 
this  wreck  of  men  General  HOUSTON  seemed  never  to  have 
lost  the  confidence  and  affection  of  his  people.  When  the  tem 
pest  had  ceased  and  the  sun  once  again  broke  through  the 
clouds  which  had  so  enshrouded  our  Southland,  he  stood  out 
as  formerly,  "  the  people's  man,"  loved  as  before,  and  trusted, 
as  he  had  been  for  more  than  twenty  years. 

The  people  of  the  State  of  Alabama  manifested  this  con 
tinued  and  unabated  confidence  in  General  HOUSTON  in  a  most 
unmistakable  manner  in  the  year  1874. 

I  trust,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  I  do  not  offend  the  proprieties  of 
this  occasion  by  the  remarks  which  I  am  now  about  to  make. 
They  are  made  in  no  partisan  or  sectional  spirit  ;  with  no  wish 
to  excite  unkind  feeling,  nor  to  revive  memories,  here  or  else 
where,  that  may  be  disagreeable;  but  only  to  illustrate  the 
services  of  Senator  HOUSTON,  by  which  he  achieved  his  most 
enduring  fame  among  the  people  of  Alabama  and  won  their 
inexpressible  gratitude. 

From  the  commencement  of  the  reconstruction  of  Alabama 
under  the  acts  of  Congress  enacted  for  that  purpose  up  to  the 
.  year  1874,  the  State  had  been  in  the  hands  and  under  the  do 
minion  of  officials  many  of  whom  had  but  recently  been  eman 
cipated  from  bondage,  necessarily  ignorant  and  debased,  and 
the  mere  instruments  and  puppets  of  bad  and  designing  men 
who  obtained  control  of  them ;  and  most  of  the  others,  these 
same  bad  and  designing  men,  who  had  no  home  in  the  State, 
no  kinship  or  sympathy  with  her  people,  no  concern  for  her  wel- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        101 

fare,  no  regard  for  her  good  name,  no  compassion  for  her  deso 
lation,  no  desire  for  her  peace,  who  came  like  vultures  raven 
ing  for  prey  and  intending  to  stay  only  so  long  as  they  could 
glut  their  insatiate  hunger  with  the  flesh  and  blood  of  a  stricken 
and  helpless  people.  I  shall  not  recite  the  ghastly  details  of 
the  history  of  those  seven  years.  That  history  has  been  written 
with  a  pen  of  fire  into  the  memory  of  the  whole  country,  and  its 
hot  iniquity  will  never  let  it  be  forgotten.  Suffice  it  for  this 
occasion  to  say  that  as  this  incursion  of  strangers  into  the 
offices  of  the  State  of  Alabama  had  for  its  object  rapine  and 
plunder,  it  became  necessary  that  the  conditions  must  be  cre 
ated  on  which  this  fell  object  could  most  effectually  be»  accom 
plished.  Disorder  instead  of  law  must  prevail,  turbulence 
instead  of  peace,  discord  between  the  races,  and  hate  instead 
of  harmony  and  friendship.  And  as  in  other  States,  so  in  Ala 
bama  were  these  conditions  created,  and  so  they  did  prevail  to 
a  great  extent  for  seven  years  prior  to  1874. 

In  that  year,  against  his  wishes,  against  his  earnest  remon 
strance,  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  was  called  from  his  retirement, 
nominated  by  the  democratic  State  convention  for  governor  by 
acclamation,  and  elected  by  the  people  by  a  majority  of  over 
seventeen  thousand  votes. 

Then  began  a  new  era  for  Alabama.  With  Governor  HOUS 
TON  all  the  State  and  county  officers  were  elected,  most  of 
whom  were  in  accord  with  him  in  political  sentiment  and  who 
became  useful  aids  to  him  in  the  Herculean  work  of  rebuilding 
and  reforming  which  he  was  about  to  undertake.  No  chief 
magistrate  of  a  State  ever  entered  upon  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  under  circumstances  more  difficult  or  more  appalling. 
There  was  chaos  in  the  treasury  ;  chaos  in  the  laws j  chaos  in 
the  courts ;  chaos  in  society ;  chaos  everywhere ! 

The  advent  into  office  of  Governor  HOUSTON,  who  had  the 


102         ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HERNDON  ON  THE 

confidence  of  every  class  of  people  in  the  Commonwealth,  for 
his  conservatism,  his  sagacity,  his  prudence,  and  his  integrity, 
was  in  itself  almost  magical  in  its  effect.  Across  the  arch  of 
the  political  heavens  like  a  bow  of  promise  it  gave  token  of  an 
approaching  calm,  and  was  hailed  as  the  harbinger  of  a  more 
auspicious  future.  All  eyes  looked  to  him  with  the  highest 
hopes  and  expectations.  Had  he  proven  unequal  to  the  great 
emprise,  had  he  failed,  chaos,  more  chaotic,  would  have  come 
again.  But  he  did  not  fail.  Disorder  was  succeeded  by  the 
order  of  well-regulated  law;  peace  reigned  where  turbulence 
had  raged ;  and  distrust  and  discord  were  no  longer  felt  nor 
heard  in  the  borders  of  the  State.  His  administration  achieved 
all  that  it  promised  or  that  was  hoped  for.  Wise  and  benefi 
cent,  it  was  upheld  by  the  good  citizens  of  the  State  of  every 
party.  Social  and  business  confidence  was  restored,  languish 
ing  industry  was  quickened  into  activity,  and  prosperity  once 
more  began  to  shed  its  sunshine  upon  the  fields  and  the  homes 
of  the  people. 

It  can  almost  be  said  of  Governor  HOUSTON,  as  was  said  of 
the  great  Alexander  Hamilton,  that  he  found  the  treasury  a 
putrid  corpse;  he  touched  it,  and  it  became  a  living  soul! 
When  he  came  into  office  the  debt  of  Alabama  was  over 
$32,000,000,  $24,000,000  of  which  had  been  created  since  1867 
by  the  vicious  methods  of  preceding  administrations.  When 
he  left  it  it  was  less  than  $10,000,000,  with  the  honor  of  the 
State  untarnished  and  its  credit  restored. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  others,  as  well  as  untrue  in  fact,  to 
ascribe  to  Governor  HOUSTON  the  entire  credit  for  the  adjust 
ment  and  settlement  of  the  public  debt  of  Alabama.  In  devising 
the  scheme  he  was  aided  by  the  suggestions  and  counsel  of  some 
of  the  ablest  minds  of  the  State,  and  in  its  consummation,  so 
honorable  to  the  State  and  so  satisfactory  to  her  creditors,  he 


LITE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        103 

had  the  efficient  services  and  co-operation  of  two  of  the  most 
skillful  financiers  and  intelligent  of  his  fellow- citizens,  his  asso 
ciates  in  the  commission  created  for  that  object.  I  do  not  mean, 
therefore,  in  what  I  say  to  detract  in  the  least  from  the  credit 
to  which  others  are  entitled.  The  glory  of  the  achievement 
was  great  enough  for  them  all  to  share  in,  and  the  relief  which 
it  gave  to  Alabama  was  beneficent  enough  to  entitle  them  to 
the  unmeasured  gratitude  of  the  people.  But  the  adjustment 
of  the  debt  belonged  to  the  administration  of  Governor  HOUS 
TON  ;  was  a  part  of  it ;  his  counsel  contributed  to  it ;  his  handi 
work  was  in  it ;  and  he  it  was  who  carried  it  out  to  completion. 
Others  might  have  done  as  well  had  they  occupied  his  place  ; 
but  fortune,  the  tutelar  deity  that  seems  ever  to  have  attended 
him,  ordained  that  in  him  the  man  and  the  occasion  should 
meet,  and  the  man  was  equal  to  the  occasion. 

As  I  have  said  before,  it  is  not  easy  to  one  who  did  not 
thoroughly  know  him,  to  analyze  and  precisely  determine  the 
causes  of  Senator  HOUSTON'S  success  as  a  public  man,  but  as 
under  all  circumstances  and  at  all  times  he  has  enjoyed  it,  it  is 
sufficient  evidence  that  he  possessed  many  of  the  elements  upon 
which  success  is  conditioned.  He  had  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  people  j  he  knew  their  thoughts,  their  feelings,  and  their 
prejudices,  and  with  marvelous  power  could  always  call  forth 
a  hearty  response  to  his  own  expressions  of  them.  It  cannot 
be  said  of  Senator  HOUSTON  that  he  was  a  leader,  in  the  sense 
that  out  of  his  own  brain  he  coined  great  thoughts  or  origi 
nated  great  measures  which  he  impressed  upon  the  people;  nor 
that  he  molded  popular  opinion  into  any  new  form  or  led  it 
into  channels  in  which  it  was  not  accustomed  to  run.  He 
was  seldom  seen  in  advance  lifting  up  his  own  banner  embla 
zoned  with  his  own  creed,  but  oftener  in  the  ranks  of  the  peo 
ple,  one  of  them,  bearing  their  standard,  uttering  their  thoughts, 


104 


ADDRESS   OF  5TE,.   IIEKNDON   ON  THE 


and  sounding  their  watchwords.  This  was  the  key  to  his  popu 
larity  and  to  his  success.  He  was  a  friend  to  the  people,  and 
as  he  loved  them  and  was  faithful  to  them,  they  honored  him 
and  crowned  him  with  their  sovereign  gratitude. 

The  mental  characteristics  of  Senator  HOUSTON  were  cau 
tion  and  judgment;  he  was  sagacious  rather  than  wise; 
reached  his  conclusions  more  by  intuition  than  by  any  process 
of  reasoning,  and  demonstrated  his  views  and  opinions  more 
by  action  than  by  logic. 

It  was  never  my  privilege  to  hear  him  in  a  deliberative 
assembly,  nor  in  the  judicial  forum,  and  only  on  the  stump 
before  the  people  in  the  latter  years  of  his  life.  He  showed 
there  none  of  the  culture  of  the  scholar,  and  but  few  of  the 
graces  of  the  orator.  His  phrase  was  homely  and  his  style 
discursive,  but  his  speeches  abounded  in  strong  common  sense, 
unskillfully  modeled,  they  may  have  been,  as  a  composition, 
but  most  skillfully  adapted  to  reach  the  understandings  and 
touch  the  hearts  of  his  hearers. 

The  long-cherished  ambition  of  Senator  HOUSTON  was  to 
represent  the  State  of  Alabama  in  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  In  the  sunset  of  his  life  this  ambition  was  gratified ; 
but  in  returning,  after  an  absence  of  twenty  years,  to  a  theater 
in  which  he  had  been  a  conspicuous  actor  and  to  scenes  which 
were  once  so  familiar  to  him ,  he  found  all  things  changed.  In 
this  House,  where  he  was  so  well  known  and  wielded  such 
large  influence,  there  yet  lingered  but  two  or  three  who  sat 
here  with  him,  and  who  to-day  have  paid  fitting  tributes  to  his 
memory ;  and  in  the  Senate  he  met  but  few  whom  he  had  ever 
seen  or  who  had  ever  seen  him.  A  new  generation  had  suc 
ceeded  to  that  to  which  he  belonged ;  his  contemporaries  had 
passed  into  retirement  or  into  the  grave,  and  men  who  had 
attained  to  senatorial  age  and  had  commenced  public  life  during 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        105 

bis  absence,  bad  taken  their  places.  New  ideas,  new  impulses, 
new  policies,  too,  had  greatly  superseded  those  which  obtained 
in  his  day.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  if  he  felt  almost  isolated 
and  alone  in  the  grand  presence  in  which  he  sat,  and  realized, 
as  he  must  have  done,  after  having  scaled  the  height  up  to 
ward  which  he  had  so  long  struggled,  the  vanity  and  empti 
ness  of  all  human  ambition. 

It  is  hardly  probable,  had  Senator  HOUSTON  been  spared  to 
live  through  his  constitutional  term,  that  he  would  have  added 
much  to  his  fame.  Its  measure  was  already  foil ;  but  he  would 
unquestionably  have  become  one  of  the  most  useful  and  val 
uable  members  of  the  Senate  by  his  wise  and  prudent  Counsel, 
his  strong  practical  sense,  his  far-seeing  conservatism,  his  un 
wearying  industry,  and  by  his  close  attention  to  the  business 
of  legislation,  to  the  conduct  of  which  so  few  in  either  House 
of  Congress  devote  themselves,  and  in  which  the  very  qualities 
for  which  Senator  HOUSTON  was  most  distinguished  are  so 
essential. 

He  was  not  long  enough  in  the  Senate  for  that  body  to  ap 
preciate  his  worth  or  now  to  feel  the  void  which  his  death  has 
caused ;  but  the  people  of  his  beloved  Alabama,  who  have  so 
often  honored  him  and  who  loved  and  trusted  him  so  well, 
lament  his  loss  to  them  and  to  the  country,  and  will  ever  cher 
ish  a  grateful  remembrance  of  his  virtues  and  his  services. 


Address  of  Mr.  HERBERT,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  on  the  last  day  of  1879  the  telegraph  flashed 
to  all  parts  of  this  continent  the  sad  intelligence  that  Senator 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  was  dead.  A  committee  of  Senators  and 
Eepresentatives  from  this  Congress,  some  from  New  England, 


14  H 


106          ADDRESS  OF  ME,.  HERBERT  ON  THE 

some  from  the  West,  and  some  from  his  own  loved  land  of  the 
South,  started  at  once  for  his  home  to  mingle  with  the  mourners 
there,  and  testify,  by  their  presence,  the  grief  of  the  whole 
people  of  this  mighty  land  for  the  people's  loss.  It  was  my 
melancholy  privilege  to  be  one  of  that  committee.  The  funeral 
awaited  our  coming.  As  we  approached  the  beautiful  little 
town,  so  long  the  home  of  the  deceased,  the  day  was  perfect ; 
the  sun  shone  bright  and  warm  as  on  a  morning  in  May.  But 
no  carol  of  birds,  no  sound  of  joy  from  any  living  thing 
greeted  our  ears.  Midwinter  was  on  the  gray  fields  and  bar 
ren  trees,  and  cheerless  midwinter  in  the  hearts  of  the  people. 
Their  homes  and  spires  were  hung  with  black ;  the  gloom  of 
grief  was  on  every  face.  As  I  stood  by  the  grave  and  listened 
to  a  gifted  orator  telling  over  the  life  of  Alabama's  best-loved 
son  to  the  silent  and  listening  throng  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and 
conditions,  my  mind  swept  back  over  the  busy  years  of  that 
life — years  that  were  all  ended  in  the  grave  before  me — and 
then  as  I  glanced  up  at  the  bright  sunshine  and  thought  how 
that  sun  would  continue  to  arise  and  set  and  seasons  would 
come  and  go,  I  felt 

Alas!  Alas! — 

How  soon  we  pass! 
And  ah!  we  go- 
So  far  away  ? — 
,  When  go  we  must, — • 

From  the  Light  of  Life,  and  the  heat  of  strife, — 
To  the  Peace  of  Death,  and  the  cold,  still  Dust, — 

We  go — we  go — we  may  not  stay, 

We  travel  the  lone,  dark,  dreary  way ; — 
Out  of  the  Day  and  into  the  Night, — 
Into  the  Darkness, — out  of  the  Bright. — 
And  then!  ah,  then!  like  other  men, 

We  close  our  eyes — and  go  to  sleep — 

We  hush  our  hearts — and  go  to  sleep, — 

Only  a  few,  one  hour,  shall  weep, 

Ah,  me!  the  Grave  is  lone  and  deep! 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        107 


But  it  is  not  true  of  liim  that  "  Only  a  few,  one  hour,  shall 
weep."  I  do  not  speak  the  language  of  eulogy,  but  only  the 
plain  unvarnished  truth,  when  I  say  that,  though  Alabama  has 
many  sons  who  are  loved  and  trusted,  the  death  of  no  other 
could  have  caused  so  keen  a  sense  of  personal  loss  to  so  many 
of  her  people. 

Senator  HOUSTON  was  a  remarkable  man,  and  his  was  a  re 
markable  career.  He  was  born  in  Tennessee,  but  came  to  Ala 
bama  in  his  early  boyhood,  and  to  him  Alabama  was  always 
the  mother  State.  To  her  people  he  gave  the  warm  affections 
of  his  youth ;  to  their  service  he  devoted  the  energies  of  his 
manhood;  and  to  them  in  their  hour  of  need  he  consecrated 
the  golden  fruits  of  a  ripe  experience. 

I  knew  him  for  years,  but  it  was  never  my  good  fortune  to 
become  intimately  associated  with  him  until  the  last  session  of 
this  Congress.  During  all  that  exciting  period  we  were  daily 
companions.  Then  I  learned  to  love  him  as  my  wise  counselor 
and  my  friend. 

Senator  HOUSTON  had  not  the  advantage  of  a  thorough 
education,  and  he  was  never  a  close  student  of  books.  Strict 
mental  discipline  in  his  youth  would  have  helped  him  to  a 
broader  culture  and  a  more  finished  style  of  oratory  "than  he 
ever  attained ;  but  he  was  a  broad-minded  man,  and  possessed 
in  an  extraordinary  degree  the  genius  of  common  sense.  His 
mind  was  strong,  active,  and  logical.  It  was  objective  rather 
than  subjective.  He  never  indulged  in  metaphysical  abstrac 
tions,  but  he  studied  closely  the  practical  bearings  of  every 
question  and  comprehended  them  clearly.  His  judgment  was 
rarely  if  ever  in  fault.  It  is  said  that  mistakes  are  the  step 
ping-stones  to  wisdom.  If  in  his  long  public  career  he  was 
ever  compelled  to  use  these  stepping-stones,  they  helped  him  to 
a  practical  wisdom  I  have  never  seen  excelled.  He  was  made 


108         ADDRESS  OF  ME.  HEEHERT  ON  THE 

solicitor,  and  twice  elected  to  the  legislature  of  his  State  when 
a  young  man.  In  1841  he  came  to  this  House  as  a  member  and 
began  here  a  long  and  honorable  career.  He  served  without 
intermission  until  1849,  when  he  voluntarily  retired  for  two 
years.  But  in  1851  he  was  again  returned  and  continued  by 
successive  elections  as  a  Eepresentative  here  till  his  State  se 
ceded  in  1861.  During  all  this  time  he  grew  in  wisdom  and 
usefulness.  Experience,  industry,  ability,  and  an  unswerving 
devotion  to  duty  gave  him  high  rank  when  such  men  as  John 
C.  Breckinridge,  Humphrey  Marshall,  Frank  Bowden,  James 
A.  Stallworth,  James  L.  Pugh,  David  Clopton,  Thad.  Stevens, 
and  Charles  Francis  Adams  were  members  of  this  body. 

He  was  once  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the 
House  and  twice  chairman  of  the  great  Committee  of  Ways 
and  Means.  He  was  the  inflexible  foe  of  a  protective  tariff, 
and  combated  it  with  all  his  power  and  influence.  He  believed 
in  a  tariff  for  revenue  and  not  for  protection.  He  urged  that 
protection  of  the  manufacturer  was  robbery  of  the  consumer. 
He  was  in  all  things  an  unflinching  democrat,  and  never 
wavered  in  his  fidelitj"  to  party.  Trained  in  the  school  of  Jef 
ferson  and  Madison,  he  contended  for  a  strict  construction  of 
the  Constitution,  for  the  rights  of  the  States,  and  the  people  of 
the  States.  Yet,  sir,  he  was  conservative  in  all  his  course.  He 
was  in  this  Congress,  except  two  years,  as  I  have  said,  from 
1841  to  1861.  I  have  looked  back  with  as  much  care  as  time 
and  opportunity  would  permit  over  the  record  of  congressional 
debates  during  this  period ;  I  have  turned  over  page  after  page 
in  volume  after  volume,  and,  sir,  I  do  not  find  that  during  all 
that  time  he  eVer  made  a  single  speech  or  uttered  a  single  word 
calculated  to  fan  the  angry  passions  that  brought  on  the  war 
between  the  States.  While  others  discussed  politics  he  ad 
dressed  himself  to  business.  He  was  a  member  in  the  winter 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.  HOUSTON.        109 

of  1801  of  the  famous  committee  of  thirty-three.  He  voted  for 
the  formation  of  that  committee,  but  it  was  unable  to  devise 
means  of  saving  the  Union.  He  remained  in  his  place  per 
forming  his  duty  as  &  Representative  until  after  his  State  se 
ceded.  This,  he  believed,  she  had  a  right  to  do,  and  on  the 
21st  day  of  January,  1801,  he  united  with  five  other  Repre 
sentatives  from  Alabama  in  a  letter,  which  was  laid  by  the 
Speaker  before  the  House,  announcing  their  withdrawal  from 
the  further  deliberations  of  that  body.  After  reciting  the  se 
cession  of  the  State  the  letter  proceeds : 

The  causes  which,  in  the  judgment  of  our  State,  rendered  this  action 
necessary  we  need  not  relate.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  duty  requires  our 
obedience  to  her  sovereign  -will,  and  that  we  shall  return  to  our  homes,  sus 
tain  her  action,  and  share  the  fortunes  of  her  people. 

Of  the  signers,  the  name  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  was  first. 

Thus  terminated  his  career  as  a  member  of  this  House  and 
the  first  era  of  his  life  as  a  public  man. 

Reviewing  his  history  in  this  House,  we  find  that  he  was 
always  at  the  post  of  duty;  that  he  took  part  frequently  in  de 
bate,  especially  toward  the  close  of  his  service;  that  he  occa 
sionally  made  exhaustive  arguments  in  which  there  were  some 
times  eloquent  passages,  but  there  was  no  effort  at  display. 
He  was  in  no  sense  an  innovator.  He  never  claimed  to  be 
wiser  than  the  fathers.  He  accepted  the  Constitution  without 
question.  Its  checks  and  balances,  its  delicately-adjusted  ma 
chinery,  were  to  him.  the  wisest  piece  of  workmanship  ever 
fashioned  by  man  for  the  protection  of  individual  liberty.  He 
saw  here  a  central  government  that  was  partly  national  and 
partly  federal ;  national  as  to  our  ships  at  sea  and  commerce 
abroad — national  as  to  all  the  outside  world — national  at  home, 
in  so  far  as  it  touched  the  people  directly,  but  federal  in  every 
feature  that  recognized  and  guarded  the  autonomy  of  the 


110          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HERBERT  ON  THE 

States.  He  saw  this  government  as  did  Washington  and  Jef 
ferson  and  Jackson,  and  he  deemed  it  the  highest  duty  of  a 
patriot  to  carry  it  on  as  they  had  administered  it.  To  this 
effort  he  had  devoted  the  best  energies  of  his  life. 

For  thirteen  years  after  he  left  Washington,  in  1861,  he  lived 
at  home,  illustrating  in  the  walks  of  private  life  all  those  do 
mestic  traits  which  so  beautifully  adorn  and  embellish  the  char 
acter  of  one  who  has  distinguished  himself  in  public  station. 
His  virtues  were  as  conspicuous  and  shining  in  the  charmed 
circle  of  home  and  friends  as  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States. 

In  1874  the  time  again  came  when  the  people  needed  his 
services.  It  would  not  be  fitting  in  me,  sir,  now  standing,  as 
it  were,  in  the  presence  of  the  grave,  to  indulge  in  the  language 
of  invective  or  say  anything  calculated  to  rouse  bitter  memo 
ries;  rather  would  I,  if  I  could,  commit  them  all  here  to  the 
dark  waters  of  Lethe;  but  no  citizen  of  Alabama  can  ever  for 
get  the  anxiety,  the  distress,  the  dark  forebodings  of  her  peo 
ple  as  they  girded  up  their  loins  to  enter  into  the  great  polit 
ical  conflict  of  1874,  upon  the  result  of  which  so  many  felt  the 
future  happiness  of  the  people  and  prosperity  of  the  State  de 
pended.  Alabama  had  always  been  proud  of  her  honor  and 
her  credit.  She  had  even  sent  gold  through  the  blockade  dur 
ing  the  war  to  pay  the  interest  on  her  debt.  Now  her  head  was 
bowed  down  with  shame,  her  credit  was  gone,  and  profligacy 
and  corruption  were  eating  out  her  substance.  The  bright 
future  her  orators  had  painted,  when  her  mountains  should 
teem  with  wealth  and  her  valleys  with  fatness ;  when  her  broad 
streams  should  bear  on  their  liquid  bosoms  a  mighty  commerce 
to  the  sea;  when  every  hillside  and  plain  should  be  dotted  with 
happy  homes — all  this  roseate  picture  was  shrouded  with  gloom. 
Confidence  was  gone;  doubt  and  anxiety  were  everywhere.  Her 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.  HOUSTON.        Ill 

citizens  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  were  fleeing  her 
borders,  and  thousands  more  were  awaiting  the  result  of  the 
great  political  conflict  about  to  begin.  All  eyes  turned  to 
GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  as  the  leader  of  his  party,  and  he  was 
nominated  by  acclamation  for  governor.  I  shall  never  forget 
that  canvass,  and  no  one  who  heard  him  before  the  people  will 
ever  forget  his  speeches. 

There  were  no  graceful  figures  of  speech,  no  classical  illu 
sions,  no  flights  of  fancy,  no  carefully-studied  phrases,  and  no 
effort  at  well-rounded  periods,  but  his  words  went  home  to  the 
hearts  of  the  people  with  a  convincing  power  I  have  never  seen 
equaled.  He  addressed  himself  to  every  phase  of  opinion,  to 
every  shade  of  prejudice,  and  to  men  of  all  political  antece 
dents.  His  logic  was  so  plain  that  none  could  fail  to  compre 
hend  him ;  his  illustrations  were  drawn  from  the  most  familiar 
objects  and  always  full  of  point;  his  every  anecdote  was  an 
argument,  and  his  manner  invited  and  compelled  confidence. 
In  fine,  sir,  there  was  that  about  him  that  caused  his  words  to 
come  as  from  one  having  authority,  and  it  did  seem  that  he 
spoke  as  the  prophets  spake.  He  was  elected  and  re-elected, 
and  during  his  term  of  service  as  governor  abuses  in  adminis 
tration  were  corrected,  extravagance  was  checked,  confidence 
was  restored,  the  credit  of  the  State  regained,  and  Alabama 
was  placed  once  more  on  the  high  road  to  assured  prosperity. 

At  the  end  of  his  second  term  as  governor,  the  Legislature, 
reflecting  the  wishes  of  the  people,  sent  him  to  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States,  which  had  been  for  many  years  the  goal  of 
his  honorable  ambition.  It  is  a  sad,  sad  thought  that  death 
has  deprived  us  of  his  services  here.  But  the  Eeaper  has 
garnered  wheat  that  was  ripe.  Every  honor  the  people  of  his 
State  could  bestow  was  his,  and  worthily  he  wore  them  all ; 
but  "he  has  run  his  course  and  sleeps  in  blessings." 


112          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  HERBERT  ON  THE 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  do  not  mean,  in  pronouncing  a  just  eulo- 
gium  upon  the  dead,  to  detract  from  the  well-earned  praise  due 
to  the  living.  The  credit  of  the  wonderful  campaign  of  1874 
is  not  all  due  to  Governor  HOUSTON.  Behind  him  was  a  great 
mind  organizing  the  forces  and  directing  the  conflict.  By  his 
side  and  everywhere  throughout  the  field  true  sons  of  Alabama 
pressed  forward  to  her  deliverance;  but  wherever  the  fight  in 
the  front  was  hottest,  and  the  smoke  was  thickest,  there  tow 
ered  above  all  the  crest  of  HOUSTON  like  the  white  plume  of 
King  Henry  of  Navarre  at  the  battle  of  Ivry. 

So,  after  he  was  inaugurated,  the  people  held  up  his  hands ; 
they  sent  true  men  to  aid  him  in  his  great  work,  and  immedi 
ately  about  him  were  gathered  wise  counselors  and  co-workers. 
Yet  among  all  and  above  all  HOUSTON  was  the  chieftain,  the 
leader,  the  great  reformer,  the  idol  of  the  people. 

Quis  desiderio  sit  pudor  aut  modus 
Tam  cari  capitis? 

By  a  law  of  this  Congress  each  State  in  the  Union  is  invited 
to  send  the  statues  in  bronze  or  marble  of  two  of  its  dead — 
"illustrious  for  their  historic  renown  or  for  distinguished  civic 
or  military  virtues" — to  be  placed  in  this  Capitol  in  commemo 
ration  of  the  affections  of  their  people  and  as  bright  exemplars 
of  virtue.  Maine  has  sent  William  King,  Massachusetts  has 
sent  Samuel  Adams,  New  York,  Edward  Livingston  and 
George  Clinton.  Other  States  have  contributed  statues  of 
those  they  hold  in  fond  recollection,  and  if  the  Legislature  of 
my  State  will  take  counsel  of  the  people  and  their  desire  to 
testify  it  in  some  fitting  manner,  it  seems  to  me  that  Alabama 
will  send  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  to  stand  in  that  Hall  where  the 
people  of  his  district  sent  him  so  often  when  living — in  that  old 
Hall  of  the  House  of  Eepresentatives,  now  peopled  with  the 
images  of  departed  greatness  and  kindling  with  glorious  mem- 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        113 

ories  of  the  past — the  Hall  that  rang  with  the  eloquence  of 
Clay,  re-echoed  the  logic  of  Calhoun,  gave  back  the  immortal 
words  of  Webster,  and  was  the  scene  of  the  ceaseless  labors  of 
HOUSTON  for  the  people's  good.  It  would  be  the  people's 
tribute  to  the  people's  friend. 


Address  of  Mr.  WILLIAMS,  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  SPEAKER,  grief  is  the  natural  emotion  of  the  mind, 
when  confronted  by  bereavements  seemingly  irreparable. 
Were  it  otherwise,  we  would  be  devoid  of  that  sensation  at 
testing  the  sincerity  of  our  appreciation  and  gratitude,  esteem 
and  affection,  love  and  devotion.  Indeed,  it  would  be  equiv 
alent  to  a  denial  of  their  existence,  by  reason  of  our  incapacity 
for  their  indulgence.  Who  could  contemplate  humanity  thus 
denuded  of  those  floral  beauties  of  the  heart,  whose  incense 
and  odors,  were  there  no  revelation  teaching  it,  would  inspire 
a  conviction  of  a  higher  and  better  state  of  existence  awaiting 
us?  It  is  not  only  natural  and  proper  that  grief  should  dwell 
with  us  in  such  bereavements,  but  it  is  exalting  and  divine 
for  it  to  be  so. 

In  the  loss  of  Senator  GEORGE  SMITH  HOUSTON,  of  Ala 
bama,  the  public  mind  is  this  day  confronted  by  and  contem 
plating  an  apparently  irreparable  bereavement.  Who  can 
doubt  its  impressive  grief,  prompted  by  the  loss  of  this  good 
and  great  man  ?  If  there  be  any  such,  there  are  none  to  envy 
them  the  desert  waste  of  their  barren  hearts.  Grief  is  not 
only  here,  but  prompts  the  silent  inquiry  now  being  made  in 
behalf  of  the  great  public  mind  and  heart  as  to  what  shall  be 
the  bounds  of  her  appreciation  for  and  her  gratitude  to  him, 
the  glow  of  her  esteem  and  the  impulse  of  her  affection  for 
him,  the  depth  of  her  love  and  the  heights  of  her  devotion  to 


15  H 


114  ADDRESS  OF  ME.  WILLIAMS  ON  THE 

the  memory  of  him  who  was  her  noble  son,  he  who  cherished 
her  reputation  and  treasured  her  honor  as  he  did  his  life,  and 
who  subserved  her  good  and  glory  up  to  and  with  his  dying 
utterances. 

This  eminent  citizen  was  a  public  man  throughout  the 
greater  part  of  his  life — a  life  that  extended  to  the  ripe  age 
of  seventy.  During  this  long  career,  in  the  different  posi 
tions  he  held  and  filled,  in  private  or  public  life,  his  excellency 
in  morals  was  of  an  exemplary  and  unexceptionable  character. 
His  bitterest  foe  never  called  in  question  his  integrity;  his 
physical  and  moral  courage  was  proverbial ;  his  magnanimity 
was  equally  conspicuous,  while  his  unvarying  and  successful 
popularity  afforded  the  amplest  proof  of  his  geniality,  his  full 
ness  of  heart.  Possessed  of  such  elements  in  their  most  en 
larged  development,  and  with  them  displayed  in  action,  none 
can  deny  that  he  was  a  good  man.  When  you  add  to  them 
true  and  forcible  intellectuality,  you  will  have  finished  the 
blending  of  attributes  and  virtues  which  as  surely  constitute 
a  good  and  great  man  as  the  unity  and  proper  diffusion  of 
colors  affirm  the  beauties  of  the  rainbow. 

What  has  been  the  career  of  Senator  HOUSTON  in  the  line 
of  which  he  has  displayed  the  intellectuality  and  qualities  of 
heart  pronouncing  his  goodness  and  greatness?  Viewed  as 
an  executive  officer  in  the  courts  of  his  State ;  a  youthful, 
fearless,  incorruptible  solicitor ;  a  wholesome  terror  to  evil 
doers,  as  well  as  an  assured  protection  to  the  innocent ;  main 
taining  and  vindicating  the  supremacy  of  her  laws  against  all 
violators,  he  has  left  an  example  worthy  of  emulation.  Or  as 
a  junior  representative  in  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  his 
State,  his  modest  and  unassuming  yet  dutiful  and  studious 
career  as  such  was  marked  with  a  discretion  and  ability  that 
presaged  his  after  efficiency  and  greatness.  Or  as  the  chief 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF   GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.        115 

executive  of  his  State,  called  thereto  by  the  compelling  voice 
of  his  people  at  a  time  when  she  was  stranded  in  the  shallows 
of  bankruptcy ;  when  she  was  dismantled  and  disfigured  by 
a  most  profigate  if  not  corrupt  administration  of  her  affairs ; 
when  lawlessness  and  disorder  were  rife  in  her  midst ;  when 
life,  liberty,  and  property  were  not  vouchsafed  by  the  strong 
arm  of  the  law ;  when  schisms,  feuds,  and  bickerings  were  on 
the  daily  increase ;  when  her  treasury  was  exhausted  and  her 
credit  unavailing ;  when  her  taxes  were  so  onerous  as  to  par 
alyze  the  efforts  of  her  languishing  industries ;  when  the  prop 
erty  of  her  people  was  without  sale  value  by  reason  of  the 
presence  of  seeming  anarchy ;  when  she  was  most  flagrantly 
misrepresented  by  those  professing  to  be  her  guardians  ;  when 
emigration  to  her  borders  was  inhibited  by  the  deadly  upas 
pervading  her  atmosphere;  when  the  hopes  of  her  bravest 
hearts  were  in  the  embers  of  extinguishment ;  and  when  her 
people  were  insulted  and  disfranchised  by  a  pretended  consti 
tution  unknown  to  and  unprescribed  by  them,  imposed  upon 
them  by  a  swarm  of  vampires  who  were  preying  upon  her 
vitals  with  vulturous  greed — at  such  a  time,  in  the  midst  of 
such  surroundings,  this  wonderful,  magical,  unexcelled  com 
mander  assumed  the  charge  of  her  destiny,  and  with  a  spirit, 
nerve,  and  devotion  that  gave  assurance  at  once  of  a  vital 
and  wholesome  change  in  her  affairs. 

In  the  short  space  of  four  years  he  transferred  her  to  her 
present  most  excellent  chief  executive  repaired  and  refitted 
from  hull  to  the  pinnacle  of  her  mast-head,  moving  majestic 
ally,  under  full  sail,  in  the  clear,  deep  waters  defined  as  her 
track,  by  the  consummate  skill  of  an  acknowledged  navigator, 
with  her  treasury  replenished,  her  credit  restored ;  with  her 
people  relieved  of  overburdened  taxation,  and  the  hum  of 
industry  revitalized  throughout  her  limits ;  with  their  hopes 


116  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   WILLIAMS   ON   THE 

rekindled,  their  spirits  reanimated,  and  their  resolutions  re- 
resolved  ;  with  law  and  order  reigning  supreme  throughout  her 
borders,  and  schisms,  feuds,  and  bickerings  dissipated  and 
obliviated ;  with  life,  liberty,  and  property  secured  beyond  a 
peril,  and  peace,  plenty,  and  growing  prosperity  the  daily 
blessing  of  her  people ;  with  a  substantial  value  restored  to 
her  property  and  emigrants  coming  into  her  borders  from  all 
points  of  the  land.  And  as  a  further  testimonial  of  the  devo 
tion  of  the  American  people  to  that  deathless  principle,  so 
essential  to  the  existence  of  liberty,  avowing  that  all  govern 
ments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  gov 
erned,  she  now  enjoys  the  benefaction  of  a  constitution 
adopted  by  her  own  people,  in  whose  broad,  clear,  and  well- 
defined  ordinations  are  to  be  found  the  amplest  and  fullest 
guarantees  of  all  the  rights,  privileges,  and  immunities  that 
belong  or  attach  to  freemen  and  citizens  under  our  unequaled 
republican  form  of  government. 

Should  I,  then,  not  say  that  he  has  left  a  model  adminis 
tration  of  her  affairs  that  may  be  wisely  followed  by  his  suc 
cessors  ?  Her  people  with  united  voice  exclaim,  in  the  lan 
guage  of  one  of  her  gifted  poets — 

All  praise,  all  honor  to  her  faithful  son, 

Who  was  the  staff  on  which  she  sorely  leant 
When,  debt-oppressed  and  'neath  the  alien's  yoke, 

Her  regal  head  in  bondage  vile  was  bent ; 
Who  was  her  staff,  and  at  whose  magic  touch 

Her  debt  was  lifted  and  her  foes  dispersed, 
At  whose  high  beck  the  clouds  went  rolling  back, 

And  freedom's  sunshine  reillumed  her  track. 

Has  poetry  or  eloquence,  in  their  most  vivid  portrayals, 
their  sublimest  sketches,  ever  o'erdrawn  the  picture  of  bless 
ings  flowing  from  the  toilsome,  patient,  self-sacrificing  work 
of  the  good  and  great  man  who  addresses  his  life  to  the  build- 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        117 

ing  up  rather  than  to  the  agitation,  dismemberment,  and 
destruction  of  his  country?  A  most  eminent  subject  for 
their  divine  arts,  in  this  particular,  is  presented  to  them 
when  the  traits  and  characteristics,  life  and  acts  of  Senator 
HOUSTON  shall  be  fully  made  known. 

If  to  induce  two  spears  of  grass  to  flourish  where  only  one 
grew  before  constitutes  a  benefactor  of  his  race,  what  shall 
be  said  of  him  who,  uprooting  and  extinguishing  all  the  nox 
ious  weeds  to  social  and  political  health,  induces  an  abound 
ing  in  their  stead  of  life-sustaining,  health-invigorating  plants, 
under  whose  benign  influences  revive  and  flourish  law  and 
order,  sobriety  and  industry,  quiet  and  contentment,  glad- 
someness  and  peace,  plenty  and  prosperity ;  or  who  reverses 
the  face  of  his  land  and  people  from  despair  and  desperation 
to  righteousness  and  exaltation  ? 

He  who  thus  aims,  though  he  should  fail  in  his  noble  and 
God-like  purposes,  will  be  treasured  in  the  hearts  of  his  people 
as  one  who,  soaring  with  the  eagle,  has  left  the  record  of  his 
flight  and  of  his  failure  among  the  stars,  yet  more  to  be  ad 
mired  and  envied  than  he  "  who  creeps  the  gutter  with  the 
reptile  and  beds  his  memory  and  his  body  together  in  the 
dung-hill."  But  with  joyous  success  crowing  his  inspired 
aims,  his  tireless  efforts,  does  not  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON  stand 
out  before  his  fellow-men  encircled  in  a  halo  of  triumphantly 
wrought,  richly  merited,  imperishable  glory  ? 

Well  may  his  days  seem  all  too  few  to  thee, 

And  yet  he  gave  to  time  a  perfect  fame  ; 
For  though  death  wrote  a  finis  to  his  deeds 

While  yet  he  strove  to  build  a  greater  name, 
Still  in  the  compass  of  the  years  he  had 

He  did  achieve  for  thee,  his  beloved  State, 
A  full  redemption,  and  for  all  thy  woes 

A  happy  issue  and  a  glorious  fate. 


118  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  WILLIAMS  ON  THE 

When  you  come  to  view  him  as  a  Eepresentative  upon  this 
floor  for  eighteen  years  an  effort  to  recount  his  efficient  and 
successful  career  here  would  swell  these  remarks  to  a  vol 
ume.  But  let  it  be  said  his  devotion  and  ability  were  such 
that  he  was  returned  as  often  as  his  terms  expired  or  he 
would  accept  the  proffered  honor,  and  that  for  the  last  ten 
years  of  his  service  he  walked  over  the  track  without  the 
semblance  of  opposition,  thus  evincing  his  towering  strength 
before  the  people  as  so  formidable  that  none  would  dare  op 
pose  "The  Bald  Eagle  of  the  Mountains,"  an  appellation 
they  conferred  upon  him  hi  their  generous  admiration  of  his 
prowess  and  achievements. 

During  his  membership  here,  he  filled  for  a  considerable 
part  of  the  time  the  chairmanship  either  of  Military  Affairs, 
Ways  and  Means,  or  the  Judiciary  5  positions  of  the  most 
arduous,  responsible,  and  honorable  character  5  his  eleva 
tion  to  which  unmistakably  indicated  the  estimate  placed 
upon  his  abilities  and  integrity.  And  none  have  or  ever  will 
labor  with  more  assiduous  disinterestedness,  impartiality,  and 
proficiency  to  fully  discharge  the  duties  of  the  same. 

His  ceaseless  vigils  in  protecting  the  people  against  a  profli 
gate  or  corrupt  expenditure  of  the  public  funds,  rightfully 
won  for  him  here  the  merited  cognomen  of  "  the  watch-dog  of 
the  Treasury  " ;  the  stern  and  courageous  presence  of  whom 
in  later  years  would  have  relieved  history  of  the  recitals  of 
robberies  and  plunderings,  the  magnitude  and  turpitude  of 
which  has  been  a  just  cause  of  reproach  to  our  people,  a  humil 
iation  to  those  who  cherish  her  reputation  or  who  treasure 
her  honor. 

Elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  in  1865,  and 
shortly  after  the  termination  of  the  war  between  the  United 
and  Confederate  States,  he  was  denied  admission — an  act 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE   S.  HOUSTON.        119 

resulting  in  more  injury  to  the  Government  and  the  people 
than  to  himself,  and  upon  the  justice  of  which  history  has 
yet  to  record  that  unimpassioued  and  truthful  verdict  so  sel 
dom  if  ever  attained  upon  partisan  representations ;  or  other 
than  "  the  feelings  which  inspiring  it,  rests  on  a  regard  for 
historical  truth." 

Ee-elected  by  his  State  after  the  close  of  his  gubernatorial 
term,  he  had  not  more  than  assumed  the  robes  of  a  Senator 
and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  that  august  and  responsible 
trust,  when  the  icy  fingers  of  the  Pale  Messenger  loosened  the 
heart-strings  of  life.  But  his  last  words  on  earth,  as  he  was 
"  going  out/'  when  he  exclaimed  to  his  faithful  servant  "  Give 
me  my  shoes,  I  must  go  to  the  Senate,"  immortalized  the  devo 
tion  with  which  he  had  consecrated  himself  to  its  fullest  exac 
tions,  and  epitaphed  his  tomb  with  the  one  great  cardinal  fea 
ture  of  his  life — ever  to  be  at  the  post  of  duty. 

He  was  furnished  his  sandals  by  the  Pale  Messenger,  as  he 
landed  him  upon  the  shining  shore  on  eternity's  side  of  the 
bright  river ;  and  he  has  gone  to  the  Senate  composed  of  the 
immortals  of  that  celestial  world  whose  presiding  officer  is  the 
great  "  I  Am";  where  his  imperfections  and  frailties  here  have 
been  swallowed  up  and  expiated  by  the  entry  made  in  its  mo 
mentous,  imperishable  journals  of  "  Well  done,  good  and  faith 
ful  servant." 

Should  we  not  all  take  heed  and  so  apply  our  hearts  to  wis 
dom  that  we  may  inherit  that  welcome  plaudit,  a  legacy  infi 
nitely  beyond  all  others  in  its  priceless  value,  its  unending 
bestowals  ? 

Mr.  Speaker,  when  on  the  last  day  of  last  year 

The  spring  of  life  gently  ceased, 
And  angels  wafted  his  soul  to  peace, 

that  potent  voice,  whose  utterances  to  or  for  his  people  were 


120  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   WILLIAMS   ON  THE 

the  words  of  soberness  and  truth,  wisdom  and  statesmanship, 
was  silenced  in  their  behalf  forever ;  that  heart  glowing  with  a 
desire  ever  to  promote  the  general  welfare  of  his  country,  by  a 
ceaseless  devotion  to  the  substantial  and  permanent  interests 
of  his  people  and  which  pulsated  in  sadness  for  their  woes,  in 
joy  for  their  weal,  sounded  its  last  thrilling  key-note  in  their 
behalf  forever  j  that  intellect,  gigantic  in  its  structure,  power 
ful  in  its  development,  penetrating  in  its  force,  profound  in  its 
researches,  solid  in  its  conclusions,  unwavering  in  its  decisions, 
and  which  was  watchful  and  active  in  the  advancement  of  his 
country's  best  interest,  his  people's  highest  welfare,  scintillated 
its  last  golden  thought  of  solicitude  in  their  behalf  forever. 

At  such  a  loss  how  eminently  becoming  that  the  chief  execu 
tive  of  his  State  should  make  public  proclamation  thereof,  with 
tender  of  his  sympathies  to  his  people,  and  with  the  officers  of 
State  should  close  its  departments,  array  in  mourning  its  capi- 
tol,  and  hasten  to  the  distant  home  of  the  deceased  to  add  to 
the  swelling  throng  that  stood  in  unconsoled  bereavement 
around  his  bier. 

Such  a  loss  could  not — yea,  should  not — fail  to  deeply  affect 
the  public  mind  with  impressive  sadness  and  grief.  No  strains 
in  eulogy  of  the  absent  one  were  needful  to  awaken  and  open 
up  the  deepest  feelings  of  grief  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
knew  this  truly  good  and  great  man.  Alas !  too  well  for  their 
own  consolation  did  they  realize  their  loss  in  his  death.  Full 
well  did  they  remember  that  his  fidelity  to  them  and  their 
every  interest  was  not  within  the  range  or  grasp  of  any  or  all 
of  the  arts  of  seduction  combined  to  entrap ;  that  his  vigilance 
in  the  pursuit  of  their  interests,  the  maintenance  of  their 
rights,  was  above  and  beyond  the  influences  of  any  magnetism 
to  divert  or  any  charm  to  lull  to  sleep  ;  that  his  bold,  explor 
ing,  and  expounding  intellect  was  not  to  be  quailed,  and  only 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.         121 

to  be  quieted  in  its  pursuits  when  the  goal  of  their  successful 
defense  from  wrong,  their  protection  from  danger,  had  been 
attained ;  that  no  amount  of  physical  trial  or  privation,  mental 
struggle  or  endurance,  seemed  to  impede  or  enfeeble  his  action 
or  diminish  his  resolution  when  thus  engaged;  that  it  were  full 
enough  for  him  to  know  the  ominous  finger  of  duty  pointed  to 
the  task  on  behalf  of  his  people,  and  the  same  was  at  once 
initiated  only  to  be  achieved,  for,  as  the  great  cardinal  of 
France  had  invoked,  in  his  bright  lexicon  there  was  no  such 
word  as  fail. 

With  such  ennobling  traits  and  their  bounteous  results 
adorning  and  enriching  his  life-long  pathway,  what  other  in 
signia  should  crown  his  noble  brow  but  that  of  goodness  and 
greatness  ?  If  excellency  in  morals,  force  in  intellect,  consti 
tute  greatness,  their  possession  by  him  would  have  been  con 
firmed  in  the  accredited  proof  of  the  trusts  confided,  the  un 
qualified  approval  of  his  demeanor  in  and  discharge  of  them 
by  the  people.  If  to  be  honored  throughout  his  days  for  his 
prowess,  treasured  to  his  death  for  his  fidelity,  and  embalmed 
thereafter  in  the  hearts  of  his  people  for  his  goodness  consti 
tute  greatness,  the  record  of  his  life  displays  the  one  and  at 
tests  the  other,  while  the  voice  of  his  people,  heard  this  day 
throughout  the  land,  proclaim  the  last.  His  was  a  life  of 
events  rather  than  words;  events  guarding  his  pathway  as 
towers  of  protection,  alike  repelling  the  javelins  of  criticism, 
the  arrows  of  malice,  or  the  missiles  of  envy,  now  standing  up 
as  so  many  monuments,  beautified  with  garlands  of  the  peo 
ple's  approval,  bespeaking  their  devotion  to  and  their  grief  for 
him. 

The  brawny  mariner,  with  a  generosity  of  heart  toward  his 
crew  as  capacious,  a  love  for  them  as  deep,  as  the  fathomless 
waters  upon  which  he  floats,  and  whose  matchless  tact  and 


16  H 


122  ADDRESS  OF  MR.  WILLIAMS  ON  THE 

crowning  skill  mid-ocean's  wildest  furies  had  tested,  was  never 
more  deeply  endeared  to  or  more  confidingly  trusted  in  by 
them  than  was  he  by  the  people ;  nor  could  their  grief  at 
the  loss  of  one  who  had  thus  piloted  them  from  midnight's 
mountainous  tempests  into  the  sun-gilded  and  placid  harbor 
of  safety  have  been  more  poignant  than  were  those  who  had 
thus  stood  around  this  political  mariner  in  the  perilous  storms 
of  the  past. 

Good  mother,  weep,  Cornelia  of  the  South, 

For  thou  indeed  hast  lost  a  jewel  son ; 
The  Gracchi  great  were  not  so  much  beloved, 

Nor  with  more  worthy  deeds  their  honors  won. 
Thy  stalwart  son  deserves  a  Roman's  fame, 

For  Cato  was  not  more  supremely  just; 
Augustus  was  not  greater  in  the  state, 

Nor  Brutus  truer  to  the  public  trust. 

When  the  deplorable  events  of  1861  began  to  cast  their  shad 
ows  so  near  as  to  startle  and  arouse  an  astounded  world  with 
their  grandly  awful  issues,  whose  terrific  currents  were  sweep 
ing  and  counter  sweeping  into  them  section  against  section,  that 
intuitive  wisdom,  nothing  less  than  the  inspiration  of  true  and 
inherent  statesmanship,  presided  with  such  vital  force  in  the 
temple  of  his  mind  as  to  retard  his  movements.  It  adjured  and 
constrained  him  to  cling  to  the  Union  of  the  States,  for  which  he 
had  a  love  akin  to  adoration,  and  to  which,  neither  by  thought, 
word,  or  deed,  had  he  ever  been  untrue.  It  admonished  and  em 
boldened  him  to  plant  himself  upon  deck  as  one  of  the  watch 
ful  crew  of  the  Federal  ship  of  state,  freighted  with  the  cove 
nants  and  jewels  of  American  freedom,  and  then  ingulfing  in 
the  livid  billows  of  the  clashing  storms.  With  a  ready  and 
cheerful  acquiescence  did  he  listen  and  yield  to  her  potential 
adjurations  up  to  the  moment  his  State  ordained  her  separa 
tion  and  recalled  her  allegiance.  Then  fidelity  to  his  people, 
that  crowning  virtue  of  the  heart,  panoplied  in  the  sanctions  of 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.        123 

nature  and  of  nature's  God,  that  shielding  and  protecting  god 
dess  to  all  the  other  virtues,  assumed  and  asserted  in  the  tem 
ple  of  his  mind  her  resistless  sway. 

In  obedience  to  her  behests,  reluctantly  and  dejectedly  did 
he  turn  his  back  upon  the  temples  of  that  Union  in  no  wise  in 
imical  to  him,  and  left  these  halls  in  which  he  had  acted  with 
so  much  ability  throughout  a  period  of  long,  long  years.  Un 
like  the  acquired  child  of  Naomi,  in  her  journey  to  the  fruit 
ful  and  prosperous  land  of  Boaz,  he  was  of  the  South,  to  the 
manner  born.  By  the  ties  of  a  blood  far  thicker  and  stronger 
than  water,  by  the  impulses  of  a  divinity  of  his  nature  that 
wafted  love  to  all,  malice  to  none,  but  peerless  devotion  to  his 
own,  her  people  were  his  people.  By  the  light  of  a  revelation, 
truth-inspiring  and  heaven-exalting,  her  God  was  his  God.  By 
a  heart  embowered  in  the  encircling  tendrils  of  the  affection 
and  devotion  of  her  people  did  he  unalterably  resolve  not  to 
be  entreated  to  leave  them,  and  that  whithersoever  they  should 
go  and  dwell  there  would  he  go  and  abide.  By  a  constancy 
incapable  of  wavering  or  faltering,  where  her  people  died  there 
would  he  die.  And  where  her  people  are  entombed  and  being 
interred,  in  equal  sentiment  of  sublime  devotion  with  Euth, 
there  doth  he  repose.  Amid  her  vine-clad  mountains,  her 
flowery,  dimpled  valleys,  radiant  with  the  beams  of  her  bright 
sunlight,  at  the  golden  age  of  three-score  and  ten,  and  full  of 
honors,  sleeps  in  quiet  rest  the  statesman  moved  by  no  other 
impulse  but  his  country's  good ;  the  patriot  disdaining  all  lines 
or  sections  as  circumscribing  his  endearments  and  attachments ; 
the  neighbor  whom  the  good  Samaritan  could  have  greeted  as 
a  brother ;  the  friend  with  whom  Damon  or  Pythias  could 
have  locked  shields;  the  husband  and  father  who  made  his 
home  an  Eden  and  its  dearly -loved  inmates  the  guardian  angels 
of  his  life. 


124  ADDRESS   OF   MR.   WILLIAMS   ON   THE 

In  the  earlier  days  of  my  manhood  I  was  a  brief  sojourner 
at  Knoxville,  in  the  renowned  State  of  Tennessee,  the  honored 
mother  of  our  cherished  Senator.  Arriving  there  on  a  bright 
Sabbath  in  November,  1847,  in  all  the  loneliness  that  could 
envelop  one  who  was  a  stranger  to  her  entire  people,  I  strolled 
into  her  beautiful  and  attractive  cemetery,  feeling  that  I  would 
need  no  indorsement  or  introduction  to  be  on  terms  of  wel 
comed  companionship  with  her  noiseless  and  quiet  residents. 
While  lingering  in  her  silent  walk-ways  and  on  her  treasured 
earth,  my  eye  was  attracted  by  a  commanding  shaft  whose 
spire  was  towering  above  its  associates  with  imposing  beauty 
and  grandeur.  When  I  had  neared  and  confronted  it,  I  saw 
that  it  protected  the  sacred  dust  and  commemorated  the 
blessed  memory  of  her  illustrious  and  immortal  son,  Hugh 
Lawson  White,  that  "  noblest  work  of  God,"  who  held  the  in 
violability  of  conscience  of  far  greater  moment  than  a  seat  in 
the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  a  position  he  had  resigned  in 
preference  to  fulfilling  his  State's  instructions  upon  a  measure 
that  met  with  no  sanction  in  that  sacred  forum.  The  closing 
inscription  upon  that  grand  token,  seen  then  for  the  first  and 
until  yet  the  last  time  in  print,  sculptured  its  sublime  utter 
ances  upon  my  youthful  memory  in  impressions  as  nearly  per- 
ishless  as  were  wrought  upon  the  face  of  that  beautiful  monu 
ment.  And  now  from  that  faithful  memory,  after  the  lapse  of 
thirty- three  years,  I  here  invoke  it  as  a  poetical  garland  equally 
appropriate  to  adorn  the  memory  of  this  her  noble  son,  who 
was 

Composed  in  suffering,  in  joy  sedate; 

Good  without  noise,  without  pretensions,  great ; 

True  to  his  word,  in  every  thought  sincere ; 

He  knew  no  wish  but  what  the  world  might  hear. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER   OF    GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        125 


Address  of  Mr.  LOWE,  of  Alabama. 

I  have  the  honor,  Mr.  Speaker,  to  represent,  in  part,  Gov 
ernor  HOUSTON'S  old  congressional  district — his  home  and 
his  grave — and  therefore  I  beg  to  add  a  last  word  of  tribute  to 
his  memory.  But  first  let  me  express  my  acknowledgments 
to  those  gentlemen  who,  preceding  me  on  this  occasion,  have 
so  truly  and  eloquently  voiced  the  general  opinion  of  the  coun 
try.  I  desire  to  reflect  the  particular  sentiments  of  Governor 
HOUSTON'S  own  people.  He  was,  sir,  a  conspicuous  figure  in 
Alabama  politics.  No  man  has  been  more  honored  by  the 
State ;  no  man  more  trusted  by  the  people.  He  was  a  member 
of  this  House  for  eighteen  years ;  chairman  in  turn  of  each  of 
its  principal  committees  j  influential  with  the  ruling  party  of 
the  country  and  busy  in  public  affairs  during  the  most  inter 
esting  and  instructive  period  of  our  history.  He  was  twice 
governor  of  Alabama  and  twice  elected  to  the  United  States 
Senate. 

He  was  not,  sir,  what  is  commonly  called  a  "man  of  genius." 
He  did  not  possess  that  singular  gift,  that  dangerous  faculty, 
that  rare  personal  magnetism  to  make  men  instinctively  follow 
after  him  without  a  motive,  or  believe  in  him  without  a  reason. 
But  he  was  a  strong,  sagacious,  useful  man  of  affairs,  with  the 
supreme  good  sense  to  see  at  any  time  what  was  best  to  be  said 
or  to  be  done,  and  with  the  ability,  tact,  and  prestige  to  say  it 
or  do  it.  He  sought,  as  was  said  of  another,  "to  serve,  rather 
than  to  please  the  people."  The  sheer  strength  that  never 
failed  him  in  a  political  contest  grew,  I  think,  more  out  of  his 
efficiency  as  a  politician  than  out  of  his  popularity  as  a  man. 
Although  personally  loved  and  lamented,  the  fact  is,  and  he 
gloried  in  it,  that  through  an  honest,  impartial  public  service, 
he  won  political  success  by  deserving  it. 


126 


ADDRESS  OF  ME.  LOWE   ON  THE 


He  was  not  an  orator  in  the  ordinary,  popular  sense.  In 
elocution  he  attempted  no  flights  of  imagination  and  elo 
quence.  Yet  in  joint  discussion  he  was  thought  to  be  without 
doubt  the  best  debater,  the  most  dangerous  antagonist,  in  the 
State.  I  have  heard  him  often.  He  seldom  wrote  or  published 
his  speeches,  yet  all  the  country-side  in  North  Alabama  abounds 
with  popular  traditions  of  his  triumphs  in  argument,  wit,  hu 
mor,  anecdote,  rough  and  ready  debate  on  the  hustings  and 
before  the  masses.  In  conversation  with  myself  and  a  few 
other  friends  some  months  before  his  death,  he  said  it  was  his 
habit  not  to  memorize  or  read  his  remarks;  that  he  rarely 
framed  set  phrases  and  sentences  in  advance,  but  studied 
rather  to  understand  and  to  be  understood,  trusting  more  to 
the  fullness  of  his  information,  on  a  given  subject,  than  to 
memory  or  manuscript. 

His  election  as  governor,  after  a  long  retirement,  was  his 
return  to  public  life.  It  was  also  the  renaissance  of  his  party. 
His  administration,  being  sustained  in  the  most  part  by  the 
property,  conservatism,  and  intelligence  of  the  community, 
brought  order  out  of  reconstruction,  and  gave  a  normal  and 
settled  appearance  to  society.  It  restored  confidence  to  the 
people  and  credit  to  the  State. 

Senator  HOUSTON  in  all  his  views  was  eminently  patriotic 
and  conservative.  He  stood,  sir,  between  the  extreme  opinions 
of  his  day,  antagonizing  the  "dogmas  of  secession"  on  one 
side  and  the  "horrors  of  coercion "  on  the  other.  He  desired 
above  all  things  to  maintain  existing  institutions.  He  saw 
himself  a  citizen  of  the  greatest,  freest  Eepublic  in  the  world. 
It  was  the  crisis  of  the  country,  the  climacteric  period  of  I860. 
The  nation  then  was  at  the  zenith  of  its  glory — the  Augustan 
age  revived,  and  that,  too,  under  higher  forms  and  better 
auspices.  He  saw  around  him  a  new  and  splendid  civilization, 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        127 

the  result  of  our  common  victories  in  war  and  peace — agri 
culture,  commerce,  manufactures,  the  mechanic  arts,  science, 
literature,  popular  education,  security  to  life,  protection  to 
property — in  other  words,  he  saw  and  felt  the  reality  of  all 
that  material  prosperity,  individual  happiness,  and  political 
tranquillity  which  defines  the  "blessings  of  liberty"  estab 
lished  by  the  Constitution.  It  was  natural,  therefore,  that  he 
should  be  conservative,  distrustful  of  new  ventures  and  ex 
periments.  He  was  himself,  sir,  not  only  a  free  citizen  of  this 
great  Government,  but  an  honored  representative  from  its  hap 
piest,  proudest,  richest  section.  He  wanted  no  change,  much 
less  revolution.  Acting  from  these  considerations,  he  alone  of 
the  delegation  from  Alabama  advocated  in  the  House  in  the 
last  hours  of  the  session  the  famous  compromise  committee  of 
thirty-three  members,  one  from  each  State,  to  reconcile,  if  pos 
sible,  the  conflicting  interests  and  feelings  which  then  threat 
ened  the  country.  He  seems  to  have  looked  to  that  committee 
with  profound  solicitude  as  the  forlorn  hope  of  the  Union,  or 
rather  as  the  poet  has  it — 

The  full  of  hope,  miscalled  forlorn. 

The  result,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  history — a  bitter  chapter.  I  need 
not  dwell  upon  it.  But  surely,  sir,  if  the  men  of  1860,  his  con 
temporaries  in  and  out  of  Congress,  had  been  as  considerate, 
as  thoughtful,  as  wise  in  their  generation  as  he  was,  the  most 
shameful  and  distressing  page  in  American  history  would  not, 
perhaps,  have  been  written.  Had  his  advice  been  heeded,  no 
drop  of  American  blood  would  ever  have  been  shed  in  fraternal 
conflict.  I  pay  him,  therefore,  this  tribute.  He  stood  by  the 
country  until  the  last  southern  star  had  faded  from  the  flag ; 
until  every  mental  and  moral  resource  had  failed;  until  the 
Union  in  fact  and  in  sentiment  was  dissolved.  He  then  sacri 
ficed  his  opinions  and  went  with  his  State,  "to  share,"  as  he 


128  ADDRESS   OF  MR.   LOWE   ON   THE 

then  avowed,  "the  fortunes  of  her  people."  But  he  did  not 
favor  the  movement,  he  did  not  provoke  it;  he  acquiesced  in 
it,  but  his  judgment,  his  wisdom  was  against  it.  This  is  his 
eulogy.  As  Congressman,  governor,  Senator,  he  will  take  rank 
in  history  as  the  last  representative  leader  of  the  old  national 
democracy  of  Alabama. 

Mr.  Speaker,  after  eighteen  years  of  almost  continuous 
service,  Governor  HOUSTON  left  the  House  in  1861,  and  only 
returned  last  year  to  take  a  seat  in  the  Senate.  The  Govern 
ment,  with  a  mighty  impulse,  had  rushed  ahead  of  him  a  score 
of  years  in  time  and  a  century  in  change,  progress,  develop 
ment.  He  must  have  felt  the  flight  of  years  and  the  changes 
in  administratioD,  but,  sir,  he  seemed  entirely  equal  to  his  ex 
alted  position.  He  sought,  with  the  prudence  and  circumspec 
tion  which  characterized  his  life — boni  senatoris  prudentia — to 
adapt  himself  to  the  altered  conditions  of  the  country,  and  to 
practice  that  ''statesmanship"  which  Mr.  Madison  said  "is  the 
science  of  circumstances."  He  engaged  to  some  extent  in  the 
business  and  debates,  especially  on  politico- economic  questions, 
which  occupied  the  Senate  last  spring.  He  ranged  himself 
then,  as  heretofore,  with  the  many  against  the  few,  with  the 
people  against  classes  and  corporations.  He  was  consistent 
with  himself;  he  kept  the  tenor  of  his  thoughts  and  actions 
harmonious  to  the  end.  In  the  truest  sense,  sir,  he  was  a  man 
of  the  people.  Had  he  lived,  I  feel  assured,  he  would  have 
served  the  country,  and  the  whole  country,  as  well  in  the  future 
as  in  the  past. 

Among  the  famous  sons  of  Alabama  who  served  in  the  old 
Congress  in  the  Senate  or  in  the  House,  I  recur  with  pride  to 
the  names  of  Bagby,  Bowdon,  King,  Lewis,  Chambers,  Pick- 
ens,  the  elder  Walker,  Harris,  Yancey,  Clemens,  Dargan,  and 
others.  They  form  a  galaxy  of  great  men  who  have  contrib- 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.        129 

uted  largely  ;to  the  honor  and  influence  of  the  State  and  to  the 
dignity  and  character  of  the  whole  country.  But,  sir,  it  is  not 
invidious  to  say  that  none  of  them  has  done  better  service  or 
more  of  it  than  HOUSTON;  none  has  left  with  the  people  a 
stronger,  cleaner,  better  record. 

The  death  of  such  a  man,  Mr.  Speaker,  is  always  deplorable ; 
but  when  he  holds  high  place  it  becomes  a  public  calamity. 
The  reputation,  the  good  fame  he  leaves  behind  him,  is  indeed 
our  recompense.  And  in  this  respect,  sir,  the  dead  Senator, 
full  of  honors  as  of  years,  will  not  be  lacking.  The  sturdy 
forces  of  his  mind  and  character  have  made  a  lasting  impres 
sion  on  the  State. 

Time  hath,  my  Lord,  a  wallet  on  his  back, 
Wherein  he  puts  alms  for  oblivion. 

We  naturally  strive  to  withhold  the  better  things  of  life  from 
the  gloomy  forgetfulness  of  the  grave.  And  so,  sir,  the  exam 
ple  of  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON,  through  a  long  career  of  honest, 
patriotic  public  service,  remains  to  us — a  lesson  to  his  contem 
poraries,  a  legacy  to  posterity.  He  died  as  he  had  lived,  in 
the  confidence  of  the  country.  Peace  to  his  ashes!  Honor  to 
his  memory! 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  now  move  the  adoption  of  the  resolutions 
offered  by  my  colleague  [Mr.  FORNEY],  and  that,  as  a  further 
mark  of  respect  for  the  deceased,  the  House  do  now  adjourn. 

The  resolutions  submitted  by  Mr.  FORNEY  were  then  unan 
imously  adopted. 

The  motion  of  Mr.  LOWE  was  then  agreed  to,  and  accord 
ingly  (at  five  o'clock  p.  m.)  the  House  adjourned. 


17  H 


ADDRESS 


OF 


REV.  GEORGE  "W.  F.  PRICE, 

AT  THE 

FUNERAL  OF  HON.  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON, 

ATHENS,  ALABAMA,  JANUARY  2,  1880. 


Scarcely  more  than  a  twelvemonth  has  passed  away  since 
I  stood,  as  a  visitor  for  the  first  time,  in  the  streets  of  this 
beautiful  little  city.  Although  midwinter,  the  day,  like  that 
which  now  bathes  us  with  its  mellow  radiance,  was  calm, 
bright,  serene,  and  mild. 

"The  bridal  of  the  earth  and  sky,"  one  of  those  delicious 
days  which  are  known  in  their  perfection  at  this  season  only 
in  this  charming  southern  climate,  when  heaven  and  earth,  in 
vested  with  supernal  beauty,  seem  vying  each  with  the  other 
in  elevating  the  mind  and  in  diffusing  a  pleasing  tranquillity 
throughout  the  soul.  TVith  you,  my  fellow-citizens,  it  appeared 
to  be  a  day  of  special  note.  As  the  hour  for  the  arrival  of  the 
southern  train  drew  on,  a  spirit  of  expectancy  seemed  to  take 
hold  upon  the  city  and  upon  the  adjacent  country.  From  the 
rural  districts  around ;  from  every  home  within  your  peaceful 
precincts ;  from  the  busy  market-place,  alive  with  winter  traffic; 
from  professional  offices  and  from  the  chambers  of  your  hon 
orable  courts ;  from  the  halls  of  learning,  where  are  taught 

your  little  children,  your  young  men,  and  your  maidens ;  from 

131 


132 


ADDRESS  OF  REV.  GEORGE  W.  F.  PRICE 


the  sanctuary  of  God,  where  was  assembled  a  reverend  body 
in  grave  religions  convocation,  there  flowed  an  incessant 
stream  of  people  toward  your  railroad  depot.  Without  distinc 
tion  of  age,  I  saw  the  gray-beard  sire  and  the  prattling  child ; 
•without  distinction  of  social  caste,  I  saw  the  strong  yeomanry 
of  the  country,  in  the  decent  garb  of  honest  toil,  mingling 
with  your  finest  city  people,  glossy  in  broadcloth  and  rustling 
in  silks;  without  distinction  of  sex,  I  saw  bearded  men  and 
gentle  women ;  without  distinction  of  color,  I  beheld  the  white 
man  and  the  black,  the  late  master  and  the  emancipated  freed- 
maii ;  without  distinction  of  creed  or  belief,  I  saw  men  of  both 
the  great  political  parties  which  divide  the  suffrages  of  your 
citizens,  all  moving,  as  by  a  common  impulse,  toward  the  cen 
tral  point  of  the  day's  supreme  interest.  Although  a  stranger 
to  your  city,  as  a  native  Alabamian  I  was  no  stranger  to  the 
occasion  which  had  aroused  amidst  your  quiet  homes  so  keen 
a  zest  of  alert  and  cordial  anticipation.  The  wires  had  but  a 
few  days  before  announced  the  election  of  your  honored  fellow- 
townsman  to  the  high  dignity  of  an  American  Senator,  and 
now  by  the  same  electric  flash  had  come  tidings  of  his  expected 
arrival.  Those  aged  men  were  the  friends  of  his  boyhood 
and  the  companions  of  his  manly  prime ;  those  little  children 
had  been  taught  to  lisp  with  pride  his  honorable  name ;  those 
young  girls,  in  their  maidenly  bloom,  were  the  pupils  of  the 
school  which  had  felt  his  paternal  care ;  those  boys  were  the 
hopeful  scions  of  a  worthy  race,  who  had  pointed  them  to 
the  lesson  of  a  noble  ambition  nobly  realized,  which  was  soon 
to  receive  the  emphasis  of  a  popular  ovation ;  those  stalwart 
men  were  the  constituency  that  had  so  often  swelled  the  tri 
umphs  and  applauded  the  achievements  of  him  whom  they 
now  waited  with  impatience  to  welcome  to  the  joyous  felicita 
tions  of  the  people  whom  he  loved,  and  to  the  first  public 


AT   THE   FUNEKAL   OF   GEORGE   S.   HOUSTON.  133 

recognition  of  the  civic  honors  that  crowned  his  head.  And 
thus  was  I  fully  prepared  to  enter  into  sympathy  with  the 
swelling  tide  of  popular  enthusiasm,  which  burst  its  barriers 
when,  stepping  from  the  panting  train  to  the  platform  arranged 
for  his  reception,  amidst  the  clangor  of  martial  music  that 
was  drowned  by  the  cheers  of  the  swaying  multitude,  and 
amidst  a  torrent  of  congratulations  as  vigorous  as  they  were 
sincere,  towered  the  commanding  form  of  Senator  GEORGE  S. 
HOUSTON,  his  brow  bared,  his  face  beaming  with  the  ruddy 
hue  of  health,  and  flushed  with  the  struggling  emotions  that 
swelled  his  bosom,  as  he  gazed  upon  the  sea  of  familiar  faces 
and  heard  the  shouts  of  voices  known  to  him  through  years  of 
neighborly  fellowship,  and  endeared  by  the  memory  of  a  thou 
sand  hallowed  and  inspiriting  associations.  I  felt  myself 
gazing  upon  one  of  those  spontaneous  outbursts  of  popular 
feeling  which  reflect  equal  honor  upon  those  who  render  and 
those  who  receive  them.  Alas !  that  I  should  stand  to-day  to 
bear  an  humble  part  in  a  scene  of  sorrow  and  of  desolation,  in 
such  vivid  and  painful  contrast  with  the  festive  occasion  to 
which  I  have  alluded.  Nothing,  my  brother  men — you  will 
agree  with  me  in  saying — nothing  could  more  strikingly  sym 
bolize  for  us  the  pathetic  instability  of  all  earthly  fortune  than 
the  ghastly  shadow  that  has  fallen  upon  a  day  bright  with  so 
auspicious  a  dawning.  This  sable-shrouded  coffin ;  these  mel 
ancholy  insignia  of  death,  relieved  only  by  the  Christian  hopes 
of  a  resurrection  morn,  typified  so  touchingly  by  the  flowers 
that  cluster  above  his  breast;  these  penitential  psalms  that 
wail  like  the  cry  of  souls  smitten  to  the  core  with  a  sad  amaze; 
this  weeping  group  of  near  and  dearly-beloved  kindred ;  this 
great  company  of  his  devoted  fellow-citizens,  whose  faces  are 
shadowed  by  the  stroke  that  has  fallen  on  their  town;  this 
silent  multitude  of  women  and  children,  whose  upturned  eyes 


134  ADDRESS  OF  REV.   GEORGE  TV.  F.  PRICE 

are  wet  with  the  precious  dews  of  their  gentle  sympathy; 
these  many-colored,  friends,  whose  faces  are  chastened  to  rev 
erent  grief  by  the  blow  that  has  alike  bereaved  all  classes  of 
this  community;  this  solemn  assemblage  of  chief  men  from  all 
the  district  which  he  so  long  and  so  faithfully  served ;  these  gen 
tlemen  here,  of  good  fame  and  of  high  places,  from  the  officials 
of  your  city  to  the  chief  magistrate  of  this  great  State  that  he 
loved  so  well ;  these  most  honorable  Senators  and  Representa 
tives  of  our  Federal  Government,  the  compeers  and  late  asso 
ciates  of  him  who  lies  there,  who  have  come  down,  in  their  offi 
cial  dignity  from  the  far  borders  of  our  land,  to  testify  their 
decent  public  condolence  and  their  private  personal  sorrow — 
all  alike  point  to  the  solemnity  of  the  hour,  to  the  majesty  of 
the  august  station  from  which  death  has  snatched  him,  and  to 
the  worthiness  of  him  whose  obsequies  we  celebrate. 

This  is  not  the  time  for  the  common-places  of  funereal  dis 
course,  nor  for  the  studied  eulogies  of  the  sacred  desk.  Upon 
a  more  illustrious  arena,  and  under  the  dome  of  that  Capitol 
toward  which  for  so  many  years  his  eye  was  daily  turned,  with 
pride  and  affection,  by  tongues  that  have  eloquence  and  by 
voices  that  command  a  nation's  breathless  attention,  on  some 
fitting  memorial  day,  shall  his  honored  associates  do  ample  jus 
tice  to  the  deeds  and  to  the  memory  of  Senator  GEORGE  S. 
HOUSTON.  And  yet  here  in  the  community  that  has  so  long 
known,  admired,  and  loved  him,  and  in  the  hearing  of  those 
who,  loving  him  alive,  will  cherish  his  memory  now  that  he 
is  gone;  amongst  the  people  whose  confidence  he  enjoyed  with 
dignity  and  repaid  with  loyalty,  fidelity,  and  devotion,  and  in 
the  presence  of  those  who  were  dearer  to  him  than  this  vital 
air  of  Heaven,  there  is  a  touching  fitness  in  telling  over,  how 
ever  briefly,  the  record  of  his  noble  and  his  worthy  deeds.  For 
there  is  in  a  sorrow  a  subtle  luxury  of  selfish  melancholy, 


AT  THE  FUNERAL  OF  GEOEGE  S.  HOUSTON.      135 

which  delights  in  dwelling,  with  tearful  iteration,  upon  every 
precious  detail  of  the  well-known  story,  since  in  the  mournful 
repetition  we  fondly  seem  to  live  again  over  the  whole  round 
of  endearing  companionship  with  the  dead  whose  loss  we  thus 
deplore. 

GEORGE  SMITH  HOUSTON,  though  not  a  native  of  Alabama, 
was  yet  an  adopted  son,  who  entered  her  borders  at  an  age  so 
early,  and  who  passed  his  active  life  so  entirely  in  her  service, 
that  we  may  honor  ourselves  in  claiming  him  as  an  Alabamian, 
a  claim,  which  he  himself  would  have  been  proud  to  indorse, 
since,  like  the  adopted  child  of  a  fortunate  and  splendid  home, 
he  had  known  from  boyhood  no  other  parent,  nor  had  his 
manly  lips  learned  to  call  any  other  commonwealth  than  this 
by  the  endearing  name  of  mother.  Having  read  law  in  the 
office  of  the  Hon.  George  Coalter,  of  Florence,  Alabama,  and 
having  completed  his  legal  studies  in  the  school  of  Judge  Boyle, 
of  Harrodsburg,  Kentucky,  he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his 
profession  in  Florence  in  1831.  Some  men  seem  born  for  public 
trust ;  and  it  is  a  happy  feature  of  our  free  institutions  that  they 
school  the  popular  eye  at  once  to  detect  the  merit  of  him  who 
is  waiting  to  devote  all  his  energies  to  the  good  of  the  lam  I 
which  nurtures  his  earliest  genius.  Senator  HOUSTON  was  one 
of  the  men  thus  marked  out  by  nature.  In  1832  he  was  called 
to  his  first  public  charge  as  a  representative  of  Lauderdale 
County  in  the  State  legislature.  From  this  date  to  the  period 
of  his  death,  with  but  few  and  brief  intervals,  he  was  con 
stantly  and  honorable  associated  with  those  offices  of  trust  to 
which  his  fellow-citizens  called  him  without  dissent,  or  to  which 
the  popular  suffage  elevated  him  with  frequent  marks  of  con 
spicuous  approbation.  Solicitor  twice,  and  for  five  years; 
Eepresentative  in  Congress  for  eighteen  years,  with  but  a  sin 
gle  interval  of  voluntary  retirement  for  two  years;  elected 


136  ADDRESS   OF  REV.   GEORGE   W.  F.   PRICE 

always  with  distinguished  enthusiasm,  and  twice  without  any 
opposition ;  twice  elected  Senator  of  the  United  States ;  dur 
ing  his  Congressional  career  twice  chairman  of  the  most  im 
portant  committees  connected  with  the  dispatch  of  public 
business  5  twice  elected  chief  magistrate  of  his  adopted  State — 
it  would  not  be  easy  to  find  a  citizen  of  the  United  States 
whose  career  of  political  service  has  been  longer,  more  con 
tinuous,  or  more  overwhelmingly  indorsed  by  the  repeated  ver 
dicts  of  popular  approval.  With  the  measures  that  he  advo 
cated  ;  with  the  party  views  that  he  espoused ;  with  the  many 
arduous  conflicts  of  opinion  through  which  he  passed;  with 
the  relations  that  he  sustained  to  the  engrossing  public  topics 
of  his  time ;  with  the  attitude  in  which  he  stood  toward  men 
and  measures  of  State  or  of  Federal  policy,  we  have  nothing 
whatever  to  do  in  the  memorial  service  of  this  hour.  But  as 
suredly  it  may  be  held  for  granted  that  a  man  so  often  tried  at 
the  bar  of  public  opinion,  and  so  often  indorsed  by  the  people 
who  had  most  at  stake  in  forming  a  true,  just,  and  righteous 
judgment ;  that  a  man  who  had  been  tested  in  so  many  and 
varied  offices  and  employments ;  that  a  man  who  began  to 
reap  honors  in  youth,  whose  manly  brow  was  crowned  with 
laurels,  and  whose  venerable  head  lies  there  wreathed  with 
the  garlands  of  Senatorial  renown,  it  will  be  granted,  I  say, 
that  such  a  man  must  have  possessed  no  ordinary  endowments 
of  mind  and  of  soul.  That  Senator  HOUSTON'S  achievements 
were  based  upon  solid  merit  must  be  admitted  without  hesi 
tancy,  or  else  we  rashly  impugn  the  great  popular  heart  and 
brain  on  which  rests  the  basis  of  our  free  institutions  and  the 
hopes  of  future  generations.  Nor  is  it  difficult  to  fix  upon 
some  of  those  characteristics  which  gave  him  position  and 
insured  him  preferment.  He  was  a  man  of  capacious  mold. 
Nature  had  lodged  in  him  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.  His 


AT  THE  FUNERAL  OF  GEORGE  S.  HOUSTON.     137 

intellect  was  robust,  vigorous,  and  energetic.  His  address 
was  frank,  open,  bold,  and  manly.  In  argument  he  wielded 
a  dialectic  that  was  cogent  and  convincing.  In  matter  solid 
and  substantial ;  in  manner  systematic,  plain,  and  practical ; 
in  illustration  happy  and  pertinent;  in  temper  cool,  self- 
poised,  and  equanimous,  his  aim  was  rather  to  convince  men's 
understandings  than  to  fire  their  imaginations.  Rhetorical 
embellishments  he  did  not  affect.  With  direct  aim  and  keen 
incisive  stroke,  he  drove  home  to  the  heart  of  things  in  words 
full  of  homely  vigor  and  of  sterling  good  sense.  His  powers 
of  ridicule  and  invective  were  withering  and  irresistible.  In 
attack  bold  and  aggressive,  in  defense  he  was  adroit,  wary, 
and  skillful.  In  his  store  of  anecdotes,  personal  reminiscences, 
and  apposite  allusions  he  possessed  a  fecundity  of  resources 
and  readiness  in  debate  which  few  of  his  contemporaries  could 
approach.  His  voice  was  clear,  sonorous,  ringing,  and  pene 
trative,  and  his  utterances  were  made  with  an  earnestness  of 
manner  and  an  energy  of  articulation  which  left  a  deep  impres 
sion  upon  the  hearer.  Without  the  magnetic  thrill  of  fervid 
oratory,  he  swept  with  master  hand  the  whole  range  of  chords 
to  which  the  popular  heart  is  wont  to  vibrate.  Born  of  the 
people,  he  was  emphatically  a  man  of  and  for  the  masses. 
This  I  mean  in  no  derogatory  sense,  but  in  the  intent  that  he 
knew  the  thoughts,  the  aspirations,  the  wishes,  and  the  views 
of  the  people.  No  man  perhaps  eVer  more  thoroughly  under 
stood  his  constituency,  or  devoted  his  energies  more  unstint 
edly  to  their  service.  He  was  jealous  for  them  and  for  their 
interests  with  an  exceeding  jealousy.  In  their  behoof  he 
threw  down  the  gauntlet,  or  took  up  the  challenge  against  all 
comers  in  the  political  arena,  and  for  even  his  opponents  there 
was  a  fascination  in  his  mode  of  dealing  with  great  public 
issues  which  generous  competitors  both  felt  and  acknowl- 


18  H 


138  ADDRESS  OF  KEY.   GEORGE  W.  F.  PRICE 

edged.  In  Senator  HOUSTON  there  was  a  singular  power  of 
swaying  the  masses.  Even  the  familiar  sobriquet  which  his 
followers  gave  him  marked  their  hearty  admiration  for  his 
eagle-eyed  sagacity,  his  sleepless  vigilance,  and  his  daring 
championship.  No  popular  speaker  of  the  State  has  ever  car 
ried  with  him  more  fully  in  his  public  efforts  the  great  body 
of  the  people.  Yet  in  the  arena  of  higher  interests  he  merged 
the  spirit  of  local  aggrandizement  in  a  sincere  desire  to  do 
good  to  and  for  his  whole  country.  He  was  of  a  generation 
that  had  learned  to  enshrine  in  their  inmost  hearts  the  name 
and  the  fame  of  our  great  and  glorious  Eepublic.  To  you,  his 
neighbors,  I  leave  it  to  say  how  he  sighed  over  the  dissensions 
that  tore  her  ensanguined  breast,  and  how  he  hailed  the  re 
turn  of  fraternal  feeling  and  good  will.  Wise  in  political 
lore,  he  was  intensely  practical  in  all  his  views.  That  he  was 
no  visionary  is  seen  in  the  uniform  and  unvarying  success 
that  marked  his  onward  and  upward  course  with  constantly- 
increasing  luster  and  renown.  Honorable,  upright,  and  ex 
emplary  in  his  private  life,  possessing  a  financial  mind  of  the 
highest  order;  a  kind,  affable,  accessible  man;  a  public- 
spirited  citizen  who  rejoiced  in  the  prosperity  of  his  commu 
nity  and  shared  in  her  deep  reverses — these  are  a  few  of  the 
traits  which  marked  him  for  popular  favor  and  for  enduring 
memory. 

Into  the  sacred  circle  of  his  domestic  relationships  it  were 
sacrilegious  for  a  comparative  stranger  to  enter.  By  the  token 
of  his  unobtrusive  solicitude,  home  was  the  paradise  of  his 
affections.  An  honorable  gentleman,  for  fourteen  years  asso 
ciated  with  him  in  Congress,  testifies  to  the  rare  devotion 
which  led  him,  through  all  that  long  period,  to  daily  corre 
spondence  with  the  loved  inmates  of  his  household.  One 
word  of  personal  allusion  I  crave  indulgence  for  speaking.  I 


AT  THE  FUNEEAL  OF  GEOEGE  S.  HOUSTON.  139 

was  honored  in  being  his  guest  at  the  happiest  period,  I  doubt 
not,  of  his  long  and  useful  career,  the  very  day  when,  crowned 
with  his  fresh  Senatorial  honors,  he  returned  to  the  bosom  of 
his  home.  There  in  the  benignity  of  his  social  converse,  in  the 
joy  that  his  presence  diffused  throughout  all  the  ranks  of  his 
household,  in  the  thoughtful  hospitality  and  gracious  courtesy 
of  his  address,  in  the  mingled  dignity  and  genial  condescen 
sion  of  his  manners,  I  got  some  insight  into  both  the  secret 
of  his  popularity  and  the  permanency  of  his  influence. 

And  so,  leaving  to  others  the  full  delineation  of  the  char 
acter  whose  salient  features  I  have  but  touched,  I  commit  to 
his  country  the  imperishable  record  of  his  public  services ;  I 
yield  up  to  the  guardian  memory  of  his  friends  and  neighbors 
the  treasure  of  his  good  name.  I  hand  over  to  the  young  men 
of  his  native  State  and  of  mine  the  rich  legacy  of  his  brave, 
courageous,  and  successful  struggle  with  life  and  fortune,  and 
I  reverently  submit  to  the  bosom  of  Divine  Omnipotence  the 
awards  of  this  long,  illustrious,  and  completely  rounded  public 
life. 


I  OCTOO 
I  ^IvJOU 


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